CLEAR-WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 183 



Life, vol. 4, p. 30, 1891 ; 22d Ann. Rep. Ent. Soc. Ontario, p. 55, 1891.— Osborn 

 and Malley, Agr. Exp. Stat Iowa Bull. 27, p. 142, 1895.— Webster, Ohio 

 Farmer, vol. — , p. 291, 1895. — Beutenmuller, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. 8, p. 113, 1896. 



Trochilium cucurbitae Morris, Synopsis of the described Lepidoptera of North 

 America, p. 139, 1862. 



Mclittia amoena Hy. Edwards, Papilio, vol. 2, p. 53, 1882. — Beutenmuller, Bull. 

 Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. vol. 8, p. 113, 1896. 



Male. — Antennae black, bi'oadly bipectinate, narrowing before apices. 

 Tongue well developed, spiraled. Labial palpus extending above head, 

 with short hair, tawny mixed with white. Head olive-black on top ; face 

 whitish ; occipital fringe short and narrow, olive-black. Collar and thorax 

 brown-green violaceous. Abdomen olive-green, suffused with red and 

 black spotted with black on the dorsum ; orange-yellow beneath ; segments 

 1 and 2 greenish black, 3, 4, 5, and 6 shaded with red, more weakly so 

 toward tip ; segment 7 and short anal tuft green-black. Coxae of forelegs 

 shiny white, feinora tawny and black; posterior tibiae and tarsi red or 

 deep orange, touched with white outwardly, with very long hair, black 

 inwardly. Forewing opaque, lustrous blue or violaceous olive-green, 

 except for a narrow, hyaline space basally between cubitus and inner 

 margin ; discal mark obscured ; narrow outer margin and fringes black 

 and brown-black ; underside same as upper. Hindwing transparent, 

 nervules and narrow margins greenish black. 



Female. — Antennae simple, black. Abdomen with segments 1 and 2 

 black ; all other segments red with a black spot and narrowly edged pos- 

 teriorly with pale green above ; beneath orange-yellow. Otherwise like 

 the male. 



Expanse: Male 28 to 30 min., female 28 to 32 mm. 



Distribution. — South and Central America, North America except 

 Pacific Coast. 



Type. — In the Boston Society of Natural History. 



Remarks. — For this well-known and economically notorious squash 

 borer the name Melittia cucurbitae (Harris) is retained, restricted to 

 North America. It is closely related to M. satyriformis Hiibner from 

 Bogota, Colombia, and identical with M. cclo (Westwood) and perhaps 

 with others of the numerous closely related species and forms described 

 froin South and Central America. The original source of this species re- 

 mains in doubt. Now widespread in North America, it seems to confine its 

 attacks entirely to plants of the Cucurbitaceae under cultivation. Wild 

 species, even when growing in close proximity to cultivated plants and ap- 

 parently suitable as hosts, are ignored. Squash growers often suffer seri- 

 ous injury and find it difficult to control the pest. The usual remedy of 

 cutting the larvae out of the vines is practical but too slow where squash is 

 grown on a large scale. The insect has been successfully trapped. This is 

 done by attracting the egg-laying moths to plants of rapid growth, such as 



