CLEAR-WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 97 



specimens are rubbed and discolored it is difficult to avoid confusion, but 

 in doubtful cases the genitalia always will serve for definite conclusions. 

 Thus, pictipes, which most nearly resembles vihurni, has the tip of the 

 aedeagus distinctly forked while in viburni it is much swollen and triangu- 

 lar ; the antennae of pictipes are black in both sexes, whereas in the female 

 of vihurni they are well marked with white before the tips ; in pictipes the 

 body colors are black with bluish or coppery reflections, but in vihurni 

 they are bright steel blue. The rather recent discovery and recognition 

 of vihurni as a distinct species was made in an area where there had been 

 much entomological collection for generations. No examples were cap- 

 tured in flight ; all were reared from the cones and branches of Vihurnum 

 dentatimi obtained in swampy thickets of Vihurnum in the Brooklyn 

 Botanic Garden, Brooklyn, N. Y. 5". vihurni is an annual species, the 

 larva living under the bark and not in the solid wood, preferably in such 

 parts where abrasions or gall growths have caused distortions and swell- 

 ings. Pupation takes place early in May in an oblong cocoon constructed 

 within the larval gallery under the bark. The moth emerges late in May 

 and early in June. While locally not uncommon, the larvae are much 

 subjected to the attacks of a hymenopterous parasite, and rearing experi- 

 ments thus far have resulted in more parasites than moths. 



The occurrence of viburni on horticultural varieties of Vihurnum as 

 well as native shrubs gave rise to a consideration of the possibility of an 

 introduced species, but this appears to be excluded as this form bears no 

 resemblance to Synanthedon andrenaeformis (Laspeyres) of Europe, the 

 only other aegeriid recorded as boring in Vihurnum. Further investiga- 

 tions should prove it an indigenous species of wider distribution than 

 present records indicate. 



Genus PALMIA Beutenmiiller 



Palutia Beutenmuller, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 8, p. 123, 1896. (Geno- 

 type, Sciapteron praecedens Hy. Edwards.) 



Female antenna simple, thickened toward apex and with the usual 

 apical tuft. Tongue well developed, spiraled. Labial pulpus rather short, 

 porrect; second joint with a short, uneven brush; terminal joint shorter, 

 smooth. Head and thorax smooth. Wings long, narrow, bluntly pointed ; 

 forewing with 12 veins, 7 and 8 stalked to costa ; hindwing with 8 veins, 

 3 and 4 stalked. Posterior tibiae smooth with stiff scales at spurs ; 

 posterior first tarsal joint slightly thickened with rough scales above. Anal 

 tuft small. 



The genus is known only from a single female specimen. It is for this 

 reason not included in the synoptic table of the genera, in which it would 

 fall with Synanthedon. Pending rediscovery and the acquisition of better 

 material, including males, the genus is treated as distinct. 



