CLEAR-WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 187 



Opaque, speckled with light gray scales ; costa and narrow margins whit- 

 ish gray ; fringes brownish gray ; underside paler, touched with yellowish 

 basally. Hindwing transparent, narrowly margined with orange ; fringes 

 brown-gray. 



Female. — Antennae simple. Abdomen deep gray on the back, red at 

 the sides, bluish black beneath with segments more or less edged with 

 tawny white ; posterior tibiae red and lustrous blue-black. 



Expanse: Male and female 24 to 26 mm. 



Distribution. — Eastern Colorado, western Kansas and Oklahoma, east- 

 ern and southern Texas. 



Type. — Male. In the American Museum of Natural History. 



Remarks. — This, the smallest North American species of the genus, 

 produces galls on its food plant, the common western gourd, Cucurbita 

 joetidissima. Hatching from eggs laid on tender shoots of the vine or 

 on the petioles of leaves, the young larvae enter the tissue, causing rapidly 

 growing gall-like swellings, which are at first firm but which become 

 hollow before full size of 2 or 3 inches in length and an inch or more 

 in thickness is attained. The larvae, when mature, desert the galls, drop 

 to the ground, and prepare tough, silk-lined cocoons below the surface. 

 This habit was reported first by F. X. Williams, who found the insect 

 in western Kansas in July 1912 wherever the food plant occurred. Each 

 gall contains but one larva and remains entire until the larva has made 

 its exit. Some of the cocoons obtained in July produced moths late in 

 August, but in the majority the larvae hibernated, the moths emerging 

 during the following May and June. The galls are conspicuous. We 

 have found them numerous in western Kansas, eastern Colorado and 

 New Mexico, Oklahoma, and the eastern half of Texas. For rearing 

 purposes galls well grown and still intact should be gathered and placed 

 in a cage with earth. When recently deserted by the larva, the cocoon 

 usually can be located by scratching the soil beneath the gall. The prin- 

 cipal time of emergence is May and June, occasionally only late in sum- 

 mer and in fall. It has not been observed whether the moths are attracted 

 to flowers. They remain near the food plant, flying about and resting 

 on the foliage. E. V. Walter captured many males near San Antonio, 

 Tex., by exposing a virgin female. May 5, 1929. Examples reared by 

 H. B. Parks, San Antonio, are labeled "Larva entered soil May 6, 1929; 

 moth emerged June 24, 1929." The insect is not known to attack squash 

 or other cucurbit plants under cultivation. The very long series of avail- 

 able examples shows no color variations. Scale reticulations on the fore- 

 wings and on the body are present but are more appressed and less 

 prominent than in cucurbifae and grandis. The tip of the harpe of the 

 male genitalia is not produced but bluntly angular, similar to that in 

 gloriosa. 



