108 BULLETIN 190, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Reared in long series from Arroyo Seco, Los Angeles, July 1927 and 

 1928 (Engelhardt), the insect attracted other collectors and is now amply 

 represented by reared specimens, not captures. All the series exhibit two 

 distinctly separate color phases, approximately 75 percent being the nor- 

 mal orange and 25 percent a lustrous black. The lack of transitions caused 

 speculation. Could the dark form be accepted as evidence of a new species 

 or subspecies in the making? The answer has been supplied by Theodore 

 W. Hower, of Orange, Calif., whose rearings of several hundred specimens 

 from San Juan Capistrano have furnished the missing intergarding color 

 variations, although in only a few examples. 



Along wooded river bottoms and gorges in California the food plant, 

 Clemalis ligustkifolia, attains maximum growth, huge vines, often dis- 

 playing the swollen infested parts, reaching the tree tops. Smaller, sprawl- 

 ing vines, usually sufficiently well represented, are more convenient for 

 collecting. Invariably such vines grow in a mixture of poison oak, which 

 calls for precaution. 



The larvae pupate in the swollen part of their burrows late in June. 

 From plant cuttings obtained at that time the moths can be reared easily 

 during July. C. M. Dammers, of Riverside, Theodore W. Hower, of 

 Orange, and E. Henne, of South Pasadena, have contributed reared speci- 

 mens to the United States national collection. 



Genus PODOSESIA Moschler 



Podosesia MoscHLER, Ent. Zeit., Stettin, vol. 40, p. 246, 1879. (Genotype, Aegeria 



syringae Harris = Grotea longipes (Moschler).) 

 Grotea Moschler (not Harris), Ent. Zeit., Stettin, vol. 37, p. 312, 1876. (Genotype, 



Grotea longipes Moschler.) 



Antennae of male bipectinate, of female simple. Tongue long, spiraled. 

 Labial palpus with a well-developed brush on second joint; terminal joint 

 shorter, smooth, blunt. Head and thorax smooth. Fore wing with 12 

 veins; 7 and 8 stalked to costa, 10 and 11 separate, 2 and 3 short-stalked. 

 Hindwing with 8 veins ; 3 and 4 short-stalked, 7 and 8 obscured in costal 

 fold. Abdomen slightly constricted at base. Posterior tibiae and first 

 tarsal joint much prolonged with rough scales above. Male genitalia of 

 the Synanthedon type ; vinculum short, blimt; sacculus ridge with a rather 

 short slightly cinwed row of heavy, black, flat scales near the edge of the 

 harpe ; aedeagus terminating in three prongs. Female genitalia with an 

 unsclerotized ductus ; bursa without signum. 



PODOSESIA SYRINGAE SYRINGAE (Harris) 



Plate 2, Figure 11 ; Plate 7, Figures 38-38b; Plate 14, Figure 68 



Aegeria syringae Harris, Amer. Journ. Arts and Sci., vol. 36, p. 311, 1839. — Walker, 

 List of the specimens of lepidopterous insects in the collection of the British 

 Museum, pt. 8, p. 41, 1856. — Thomas, Seventh report of the State entomologist 

 on the noxious and beneficial insects of the Stale of Illinois, 1877, p. 174, 1878. — 



