132 BULLETIN 190, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



long lateral processes, supporting aedeagus ; harpe hairy, rather nar- 

 row elongate with cucullus upturned ; sacculus without special armed 

 ridge; vinculum short, broad, bluntly rounded at tip; aedeagus slightly 

 curved, bulbous on basal half. Female genitalia with ductus short, 

 sclerotized only around the heart-shaped ostium ; bursa very long, elongate 

 ovate with a strong, sharp, thornlike signum, a very unusual character 

 in the family. 



Only the type species is known. 



SIGNAPHORA RUFICORNIS (Hy. Edwards) 



Plate 2, Figure 14; Plate 9, FiGuiiEs 45, 45a ; Plate 15, Figure 75 



Carmenla ruficornis Hy. Edwards, Papilio, vol. 1, p. 184, 1881. — Beutenmuller, 

 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 4, p. 175, 1892; vol. 8, p. 147, 1896. 



Carmenta mimUa Hy. Edwards, Papilio, vol. 1, p. 185, 1881. 



Sesia ruficornis Beutenmuller, Mem. Amer. Mu.s. Nat. Hist., vol. 1, pt. 6, p. 311, 

 pi. 32, fig. 35, 1901. 



Synanthedon ruficornis McDunnough, Check list of the Lepidoptera of Canada and 

 the United States of America, pt. 2, No. 8757, 1939. 



Male. — Antennae coppery black above, rufous beneath. Labial palpi 

 yellow, dusky above. Head black, with a rough brush, black and yellow 

 on top ; occipital fringe yellow. Thorax rusty black, smooth ; a yellow dash 

 on posterior half at the sides and a yellow mark anterior to wing base and 

 beneath; prescutum with appressed golden metallic scales; abdomen vio- 

 laceous-black, segments 2, 4, 6, and 7 banded with yellow, 7 above and 

 beneath ; anal tuft short, rounded, black above, black and yellow beneath. 

 Forelegs with coxae yellow ; tibiae of hindlegs black, broadly banded with 

 yellow at anterior spurs ; tarsi annulated with black and yellow. Forewing 

 opaque, lustrous violaceous brown-black, streaked with red before and 

 behind the discal mark. Hindwing transparent; margins narrow, lus- 

 trous coppery ; fringe broad, sordid black. Wings beneath same as above. 



Female. — Very similar to male. 



Expanse: Male 12 to 14 mm., female 14 to 16 mm. 



Distribution. — Atlantic Coast States, Virginia to Gulf of Mexico. 



Type. — Female. In the United States National Museum. 



Remarks. — One of the smallest and structurally most distinct species in 

 the North American fauna. The moths frequent flowers and during late 

 summer and early in fall may be collected in numbers in dry, open or 

 wooded regions from Virginia southward to the Gulf of Mexico. Thomas 

 S. Van Aller and the author captured hundreds of specimens near Mobile, 

 Ala., yet persistent search for the food plant and early stages failed 

 completely. It should prove to be a borer in an herbaceous plant, but 

 this problem remains unsolved. 



Records in the United States National Museum : Long series of both 

 sexes, vicinity of Mobile, Ala., August-September 1927-1929 (Aller and 

 Engelhardt) ; males and females, Raleigh, N. C., August 16, 1906; 

 Southern Pines, N. C., August 1-7 ; Falls Church, Va., July 1901. 



