CLEAR-WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 163 



Male. — Antennae bipectinate, black above, rufous beneath. Labial pal- 

 pus buff or pale yellow, black at the sides, orange on tip. Head black; 

 face sordid white ; occipital fringe pale yellow. Collar violaceous-black. 

 Thorax black, with grizzly hair. Tegulae touched with yellow on posterior 

 part ; a sordid-white spot anterior to and below wing base and a whitish 

 patch on anterior side. Abdomen black, segments narrowly ringed with 

 yellowish white, the ring on segment 3 faint ; anal tuft short, broad, black. 

 Legs mostly black ; posterior tibiae rough, black and grizzly, a yellow tuft 

 at lower spurs ; tarsi black, mixed with sordid white. Forewing trans- 

 parent, outer margin very broadly sordid black ; discal mark large, black, 

 narrowly red on outer side ; costa heavily scaled, blackish ; inner margin 

 edged with red basally ; beneath heavily suffused with red. Hindwing 

 transparent, margins and fringes narrow, dull black. 



Female. — Larger and stouter. Antennae simple, entirely black. Ab- 

 dominal segments more conspicuously ringed with pale yellow. Otherwise 

 like the male. 



Expanse: Male 18 to 26 mm., female 18 to 32 mm. 



Distribution. — North America, transcontinental. Temperate to Arctic 

 Zone. 



Type. — Male. In the British Museum of Natural History. From St. 

 Martins Falls, Albany River, Hudson Bay, 



Remarks. — An abundant species, well represented in most collections, 

 the food plant and early stages of Albuna pyrauiidalis, nevertheless, re- 

 mained unknown for many years. The first clue leading to the discovery 

 of the life history was furnished by Mrs. Hippiley of Terrace, British 

 Columbia. During excavation of a tract of land for building, many plants 

 of fireweed, or willow-herb, Chamaenerion angustifolinm, were uprooted 

 and found to contain in the deeply embedded, horizontal main roots numer- 

 ous whitish, boring larvae. From such root cuttings transmitted to New 

 York, Frank E. Watson, of the American Museum of Natural History, 

 succeeded in rearing a male of pyramidalis var. niontana, emerging under 

 forced indoor breeding on March 5, 1928. With this evidence in mind the 

 writer repeatedly failed to obtain additional material for rearing because 

 of his unpreparedness to dig down to the main perennial roots among rocks 

 in the usual environment. Pulling the annual flowering stalks proved 

 useless. Success resulted during a visit to John D. Ritchie, at Earl Grey, 

 near Regina, Saskatchewan, in July. A well-established, heavy growth of 

 C. angiistijolimn in the clay soil of the plains region showed signs of a 

 heavy infestation ; numerous moths were in flight and pupal exuviae were 

 protruding near the bases of the plants. The pupal shells were still at- 

 tached to irregularly shaped oblong cocoons 1 to 2 inches long, which were 

 just below the surface at the upper ends of vertical tunnels leading to main 

 roots about a foot or even 2 feet deep. Small to half-grown larvae were 

 in the main roots at that time. Investigation of the early stages has not 



