148 BULLETIN 190, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



habits, and food plants it closely resembles simulans. The genitalia of 

 the two species are much alike. Normal examples of palmii are orange, 

 striped with yellow laterally the whole length of the thorax, whereas 

 simulans normally is yellow with only a short, blunt, lateral stripe on 

 the posterior part of the thorax. Intermediate specimens occur, and 

 these may be placed with equal satisfaction in either of the two species. 

 In general palmii develops in trees of the white-oak group and simulans 

 in the black oaks. There is overlapping in this host association, but 

 palmii has not been reared from black oak, nor has simulans been ob- 

 tained from white oak. This discrimination has been observed even where 

 the two species occur in mixed association as they do on Long Island. 



Larval burrows on tree trunks are indicated by swollen places, covered 

 with blistered bark. On small growths, saplings and branches, the in- 

 jury is more serious, causing gall-like swellings and often the dying of 

 the parts above the burrow. After emergence of the moths pupal skins 

 protrude from the burrows, often remaining exposed for long periods. 

 With experience the identity of the borer can be determined by the 

 character of its work. Burrows characteristic of palmii have been found 

 on white scrub oak in a canyon near Salt Lake City, Utah ; at Jemez 

 Springs, Sandoval County, N. Mex., and at Yosemite Park, Calif. How- 

 ever, this western distribution of the species still awaits substantiation 

 through specimens of the moths. 



Throughout Florida palmii is fairly common in areas of scrubby oak 

 growth, both deciduous and evergreen species being attacked. Fine 

 series were reared at Gainesville, Daytona, and Jacksonville. At Mobile, 

 Ala., several females were captured in flight, but not nearly so many 

 as of the queens of Vespa carolinensis, which are so deceptive in behavior 

 and in appearance that they cannot be readily distinguished from the 

 moths until they are collected. In its southern range palmii emerges from 

 April to June ; in its northern range in June and July, as does simulans. 



Records in the United States National Museum: Woodhaven and 

 other localities on Long Island, N. Y. ; Washington, D. C. (Engelhardt). 



PARANTHRENE ASILIPENNIS (Boisduval) 



Scsia asilil'cnnis Boisduval, in Guerin-Meneville, Cuvier's Iconographie du regne 

 animal, vol. 3 (b) (Insects), p. 496, pi. 84, fig. 3 (male), 1829; Histoire naturelle 

 des insectes: Species general des lepidopteres heteroceres, vol. 1, p. 391, 1874. — 

 Wilson, Encyclopedia Britannica, ed. 7, p. 244, pi. 236, 1835. 



Trochilium demidatum Harris, Amer. Journ. Arts and Sci., vol. 36, p. 310 (female), 

 1839 ; A report on the insects of Alassachusetts injurious to vegetation . . ., p. 232, 

 1842; ed. 2, p. 252, 1852; ed. 3, p. 330, 1863.— Kellicott, Can. Ent., vol. 13, p. 8, 

 1881.— Hy. Edwards, Papilio, vol. 2, p. 97, 1882. 



Trochilium vespipenne Herrich-Schaffer, Sammlung neuer oder wenig bekannter 

 aussereuropaischer Schmetterlinge, p. 57, fig. 217 (female), 1854. 



Tarsa bombyciformis Walker, List of the specimens of lepidopterous insects in the 

 collection of the British Museum, pt. 8, p. 61 (male) , 1856.— Boisduval, Histoire 



