CLEAR-WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 141 



dull orange-brown; costa, veins, and very narrow margin black, fringes 

 brown-black. Hindwing semitransparent. reddish brown; discal mark 

 conspicuous, with clear areas before and behind; an irregular suffusion 

 between the veins from outer margin inward to and beyond the discal 

 mark, basal parts of wing remaining transparent; underside Itistrous red- 

 dish. 



Female.- — Like the male. Antennae simple, body heavier, anal tuft very 

 short, blunt. 



Expanse: Male 30 to 34 mm., female 30 to 40 mm. 



Distribution. — Atlantic Coast States, Massachusetts to Appalachian 

 regions of Virginia. 



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



Remarks. — Paranthrene dollii is a wood borer in poplars and willows. 

 In natural, undisturbed regions along streams and the borders of swamps 

 the species is found rather scatteringly, evidently held in check by para- 

 sites, woodpeckers, and other enemies. The best places for collecting 

 are suburban districts of cities and towns where real-estate developments 

 are interfering with plant growth, leaving trees and shrubs in a weakened 

 and mutilated condition. Such struggling trees and shrubs are especially 

 attractive to boring insects, as are also young poplars planted along road- 

 sides. From a young poplar section several feet in length as many as 

 15 moths have been reared. On willows, preferably low-growing shrubby 

 kinds, the larvae are found in the main trunks and in branches, not in 

 the roots, and often in association with wood-boring Coleoptera, Saperda 

 and Cryptorhynchus, which stuff their galleries with long, excelsiorlike 

 shavings, whereas the burrows of the aegeriid larvae are filled with small, 

 round, reddish pellets of frass and woody fragments. The larvae attain 

 maturity in the fall of the second year. At that time, if in normal condi- 

 tion, they prepare pupal chambers, capped but without cocoons, in the 

 upper part of their burrows. Here they winter and transform to pupae 

 late in May and during June. The moths emerge two or three weeks later. 

 Larvae affected with parasites generally fail to prepare pupal chambers. 

 They linger through winter and spring, dying as the parasites issue to fill 

 the burrow with their little white cocoons. 



Heavy infestations, as have been recorded by very long series of moths, 

 from Long Island and the vicinity of New York City 30 and more years 

 ago, have not been encountered since. Recent records are of individuals 

 or small numbers. This also is true of the color form castanea in its 

 southern habitat, with one exception. A fine series was reared from 

 willow cuttings obtained on the Tamiami Trail to Miami, Fla. (Engel- 

 hardt). Among material of the color form jasciventris are two long, 

 reared series, one from Humboldt Park, Chicago, 111., May 1897 (U. S. 

 Bur. Ent. No. 6295) ; the other from Cicero, Chicago, ill., June 1920 

 (A. Wyatt and E. Beer). 



