CLEAR.WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 81 



margined and fringed with black and brownish and a scattering of scales 

 between the veins at outer margin. 



Female. — Like the male, but stouter and with scaling and color intensi- 

 fied. Thorax darker, the first abdominal segment barely touched with 

 orange anteriorly and the blue-black scaling on all segments above, extend- 

 ing more or less beneath the abdomen ; the short, blunt anal tuft bright red ; 

 tibiae and tarsi of hindlegs blue-black, slightly tinged with orange beneath ; 

 a small, yellow, hair tuft at the posterior spurs of tibia. 



Expanse : Male 20 to 23 mm., female 20 to 25 mm. 



Distribution. — Known only from Alabama and Mississippi. 



Type. — Male. In the Tepper collection, Michigan Agricultural College. 



Remarks. — The long series in the United States National Museum, with 

 the exception of one specimen from Mississippi, came from Mobile, Ala., 

 the result of rearing from young white-maple shade trees. F. M. Jones, of 

 Wilmington, Del., first reported the food plant and habits on a visit to 

 Mobile in 1920. The infestation at that time was serious and the trees were 

 in a mucli weakened condition, with sores and swellings on trunks and 

 branches. On subsequent visits in 1928 and 1930 (Engelhardt) most of 

 the trees had died and had been removed. Credit for rearing many exam- 

 ples belongs to Thomas S. Van Auer, W. C. Dukes, and H. P. Loeding, 

 sterling entomologists and friends, who have contributed so much informa- 

 tion on Alabama insects. 



5". acerni tepperi, with the food plant and habits unknown, has been 

 regarded as a distinct, valid species. Now that this information is available 

 and is supported by structural conformities, tepperi has been established 

 indisputably as conspecific with the common eastern maple bark borer, 

 acerni, of which buscki from Florida is the intermediary and tepperi from 

 Alabama the third link in a chain of geographical races. This serves as an 

 illustration of the chief aim of the present revision of the family, a classi- 

 fication based on a combined study of taxonomy and biology. 



Emergence records from Mobile, Ala., are dated from March to June. 

 A single example from Hattiesburg, Miss., is labeled "Bred from maple, 

 Aug. 27, 1917." 



Genus CONOPIA Hiibner 



Conopia Hubner, Verzeichniss bekannter Schmetterlinge, p. 129, 1819. (Genotype, 

 Sphinx myopiformis Borkhausen.) 



Male antennae ciliate ; female antennae simple. Tongue long, spiraled. 

 Second joint of labial palpus with a short, nearly even brush ; terminal joint, 

 short, biunt. Head and tliorax smoolh, Forewing with 12 veins ; 7 and 8 

 stalked; 7 to costa or apex; 10 and 11 separate. Hindwing with eight 

 veins, 3 and 4 stalked. Posterior tibiae roughly hairy. Posterior first 

 tarsal joint smooth. Male anal tuft wedge- or fan-shaped. Male genitalia 

 of the Synanthedon type ; vinculum rather short, blunt ; aedeagus straight, 



