106 BULLETIN 190, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Types.— U.S.N. M. No. 56840. From San Antonio, Tex. 



Remarks. — Described from the male type and 31 male and 27 female 

 paratypes all from San Antonio, Tex. 



This species escaped notice and capture on the part of collectors until 

 reared in long series from cuttings of Clematis ligusticifolia in southeastern 

 Texas. Rearing material obtained in June and July repeatedly resulted 

 in failure until after the emergence of one dwarfed specimen late in Sep- 

 tember. This solved the problem. A. autumnalis is a fall species with 

 the principal time of emergence in September and October as against 

 June, July, and August for other species in the genus. The three hyaline 

 areas at the base of the hindwing readily separate this species from 

 peps'wides, which has only one hyaline basal area. Long series of fine 

 specimens of both sexes as yet are contained only in the United States 

 National Museum. Locality records are : Austin, San Antonio, Del 

 Rio, and Brownsville, Tex. The range of autumnalis follows the food 

 plant into Mexico and very likely into Central America, where it is ex- 

 pected to prove conspecific with A. korites (Druce), when more and 

 better material becomes available. The examples from Texas run true 

 to type. There are no color variations. 



ALCATHOE CAROLINENSIS Engelhardt 



Alcathoe carolinensis Engelhardt, Bull. Brooklyn Ent. Soc, vol. 20, p. 156, 

 1925. — McDuNNOUGH, Check list of the Lepidoptera of Canada and the United 

 States of America, pt. 2, No. 8686, 1939. 



The description of this form as a Nearctic species seeins likely to have 

 been incorrect. Erected on a single example, without locality label and 

 date, and contained in a miscellaneous lot of Lepidoptera at the American 

 Museum of Natural History, the specimen was recognized, at first doubt- 

 fully, then positively, by Beutenmiiller as having been collected by him 

 on flowers of Clematis in the Black Mountains of North Carolina, a sur- 

 prising record inasmuch as the moth exhibits much closer affinities to 

 western species than to the eastern A. caudata. Subsequent field investi- 

 gations in the Black Mountains of North Carolina have proved Beuten- 

 miiller's plant identification erroneous. Long series of reared examples 

 consisted of typical A. caudata, including several of the black male 

 variety, walkeri. 



The collection of North American clematis borers has been extended 

 greatly in recent years, affording a clearer conception of the species and 

 their races and color varieties. The type of carolinensis lacks antennae 

 and the long anal appendage of the male. Reexamination shows it not 

 to be a male, as described, but a female with a short antennal stub which 

 is orange, characteristic of that sex. The male antennae are black. On 

 structure carolinensis could readily be placed as a black color variety 

 of autumnalis, but 100 or more reared specimens of autumnalis from 

 Texas show absolutely no color variations. This apparent uniformity 



