CLEAR-WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 189 



Melittia barnesi Dalla Torre and Strand, Lepidopterorum catalogus, pt. 31, 

 Aegeriidae, p. 138, 1925. 



Male. — Very similar to the male of gloriosa. Of larger average size. 

 Abdomen with segments 3, 4, and 6 white, barely touched with yellow. 



Female. — Differs from female of gloriosa by having the hindwings 

 transparent and deep orange only at wing base. The abdominal bands, 

 similar in arrangement, are more contrasting, pinkish white and bluish 

 black. Females of this race attain the largest size found in North Am- 

 erican Aegeriidae. 



Expanse: Male 50 mm., female 52 to 62 mm. 



Distribution. — Western Kansas, eastern Colorado, Texas. 



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



Remarks. — This, the largest and handsomest species of North American 

 Aegeriidae, fittingly bearing the name gloriosa, is hardly exceeded in 

 beauty and size by any other species in the entire family. Until collected 

 in numbers and its food plant and habits reported by F. X. Williams 

 in 1913, the few examples in collections were highly prized. Williams 

 collected his specimens, a dozen or more, in Seward and Graham Counties 

 of western Kansas, August 1911 and 1912. He traced moths to their 

 food plant, Cucurhiia joetidissima, found numerous pupal exuviae, and, 

 upon digging down to the larger underground tubers, noted larval ex- 

 cavations but failed to find living material for rearing. This also has 

 been my experience on many occasions, although better success was had 

 in company with H. G. Thompson, of Oregon State College, during July 

 1924. Observing an insect in flight over pastureland and in doubt whether 

 it was a cicada killer wasp or a moth, we watched its aerial gyrations 

 until suddenly it dropped and to our delight proved to be a male of 

 gloriosa already copulating with a freshly emerged female. The pupal 

 shell of the latter protruded from near the base of the stem of Echino- 

 cystis fabacea, a sprawling or climbing cucurbit vine, better known as 

 manroot, or bigroot, for its enormous underground tubers, sometimes 

 actually as large as the body of a man. The vines above ground already 

 had wilted at the time. A pickax was needed to uncover the top of the 

 root a foot or deeper in the dry, almost stone-hard clay soil. We found 

 several immature larvae and one fully grown in tortuous burrows. Above 

 the tuber vertical tunnels led upward to a point an inch or tv/o below 

 the surface of the ground, the upper parts containing tough, elongated 

 pupal cases, all vacated, except one that still contained a living pupa. 

 This has been preserved and is an example of adaptation of unusual 

 interest. Most pupae of boring Lepidoptera are provided with cutting 

 structures on the head and roughened edges on the abdominal segments 

 to facilitate emergence. In gloriosa such structures have developed to 

 an extraordinary degree. The head armament consists of a 3-pronged 

 drill in front, a sharp outcurving spine beneath, and an erect, knifelike 



