CLEAR-WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 93 



Male. — ^Antennae metallic black. Labial palpi heavily brushed with 

 orange beneath, above orange and black mixed and tips black. Head 

 black, frons with a stiff brush, blue-black. Collar blue-black. Thorax 

 black, a small orange patch at the sides ; metathorax tufted with long black 

 hair. Abdomen black with steel-blue reflections above and beneath ; anal 

 tuft short, fan-shaped, black. Legs orange, femora black outside, tibiae 

 rough throughout, tarsi smooth. Forewing transparent, costa, outer 

 margin, veins, and large discal mark shiny blue-black, very sparsely inter- 

 mixed with orange, a suffusion of rusty black scales between the veins at 

 outer margin, limbus and wing base shaded a deep orange ; fringes sordid 

 black. Hindwings transparent, narrowly margined with black. Fore- 

 wings and hindwings shaded with orange beneath. 



Female. — Same as the male. Anal tuft narrow, straight with thin hair 

 pencils, two on each side (this condition possibly due to abrasion) ; none 

 of the few available examples is in perfect condition. 



Expanse: Of saxijragae, male 22 mm., female 22 to 24 mm.; of hen- 

 shawii, male 18 mm. 



Dufribufion. — Of sa.vifragae . Rocky Mountains. Colorado and Utah, 

 8,000 to 12,000 feet, and Alaska; of henshawii, Labrador, Hudson Bay. 



Type. — Male. In the American Museum of Natural History. 



Remarks. — It is difficult to align this species satisfactorily. The few 

 worn specimens available have been collected singly over a long period 

 of years in widely separated sections of the continent, but all at high eleva- 

 tion, 8,000 to 12,000 feet, or in Arctic regions. If allowance is made for 

 excessive hairiness and roughness as due to a life in frigid zones, the species 

 fits best into the present genus. Structures of the male genitalia, especially 

 the strong, flat-scaled, outwardly recurved sacculus ridge, set it apart from 

 the other species. Nothing is known of the food plant, except tliat it is not 

 saxifrage. 



Of the species described by Hy. Edwards as henshazvii only two 

 examples are known, the male type (American Museum of Natural 

 History) from Mingen Island, Labrador, 1882, and one male (U. S. 

 National Museum), Piquitenay River, Mile 214, Hudson Bay Railroad, 

 July 16—23. The two examples are smaller in expanse than saxifi'agae, 

 18 mm. against 22 mm., and they are dusted slightly more heavily with 

 orange on the primaries. The male genitalia are alike. For the present 

 it seems best to continue hcnshaieii as a synonym of saxijragae. 



The following records of saxijragae are contained in the Utiitcd States 

 National Museum collection: One male. South Park, Colo., 12,000 feet, 

 June 25, 1917 (Oslar) ; one male, San Miguel, Colo., (Oslar) ; one male, 

 Silverton, San Juan Mountains, Colo., 12,000 feet, July 19, 1903 (C. P. 

 Gillette) ; one female, Rico, southwestern Colorado, 10,000 feet (Oslar) ; 

 one female, Uinta Mountains, Utah, June 26 (Truman Swallow) ; one 

 female, Fort Yukon, Alaska. 



