CLEAR-WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 79 



Expanse : Male a.ncl female, 20 to 25 mm. 



Distribution. — Canada, New England, Eastern and Midwestern States, 

 and Mississippi Valley, in general following the distribution of the white 

 maple (Acer saccharinum) and red maple (Acer ruhriim). 



Type. — Lost. 



Remarks.- — A common, well-known bark borer in shade trees, destruc- 

 tive to white and red maples. The larvae feed upon the inner bark and the 

 sapwood and once established continue their attacks year after year, re- 

 sulting in the gradual weakening and final death of the trees. The white 

 maple, formerly so popular as a shade tree in cities and towns, now is 

 being replaced largely by Norway and other maples less subject to attacks 

 by this insect. Maples in native environments, woodland, etc., sufTer far 

 less than those planted in streets and gardens. The moths appear late in 

 May and during June, emerging early in the morning, and can be collected 

 easily while still resting or mating on the tree trunks. Their flight on 

 sunny days is swift and erratic. In ha,bits they are strictly diurnal. Not 

 infrequent records of night capture under city lights are accidental. The 

 larvae winter within their galleries, constructing oblong cocoons of chips 

 and frass before pupation in the spring, and the moths emerge through cir- 

 cular holes in the bark, leaving the pupal exuvia protruding, usually in 

 places showing injury and blistered bark on the tree trunks, rarely on the 

 branches. Within the more temperate part of its range the species varies 

 slightly only in coloration, but along the coastal regions in the South two 

 color phases occur which are so striking as to demand recognition as geo- 

 graphical races. Both of these races have been obtained by rearing, estab- 

 lishing beyond doubt that they are conspecific with acerni. 



Records of this species from New England and the Eastern and Mid- 

 western States are well represented in the United States National Museum 

 collection. There are also records from Monteagle, Tcnn., St. Louis, Mo., 

 and Texarkana, Tex. 



SYLVORA ACERNI BUSCKI, new race 



Plate 22, Figure 133 



Male. — Antennae blue-black. Palpi deep orange, slightly black at the 

 tips. Head tufted with orange above, face violaceous-black, orbits white. 

 Collar orange. Thorax brownish red, tinged with blackish centrally and 

 shiny black at the sides to the wing base, brownish red beneath. Abdomen 

 orange, segment 3 scaled with blue-black, except for the center, which re- 

 mains orange ; segments 4, 5, 6, and 8 with blue-black scales, which are 

 heaviest on the last segments; abdomen beneath wholly orange; anal tuft 

 fan-shaped, orange above and beneath. Hindlegs with femora orange, 

 tibiae outward shaded with blue-black scales, thin above, but dense between 

 the spurs, otherwise orange ; the tarsi showing a sprinkling of blue-black 

 scales. Forewing broadly shaded with bright orange or golden yellow be- 



