190 BULLETIN 190, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



blade, more than a millimeter high, on top of the head. The thorax 

 has a narrow knife-edged ridge all along the back and a stout, short spine 

 on each shoulder. All abdominal segments are strongly spined, the spines 

 being nearly erect above and at the sides ; and the anal end bears a 

 circle of broader, sharp-edged spines, which are slightly curved. It is 

 an ingenious arrangement for drilling and is undoubtedly an indispensable 

 provision in assuring the final exit of the moth from the hard soil. Fol- 

 lowing these investigations Dr. Thompson discovered manroot growing 

 on a pasture adjoining his property at Corvallis, Oreg. In succeeding 

 years during the flying season of late July and August he collected sev- 

 eral hundred freshly emerged moths by making early-morning inspections. 



In California the species is widely distributed from north to south and 

 on the islands near the coast. B. G. Thompson captured numbers of the 

 moths along farmlands at Sacramento, and C. O. Poling collected them 

 on Santa Catalina Island ; and there are many records of single speci- 

 mens or small numbers collected throughout the state. F. E. Blaisdell 

 took a specimen near San Diego on Rhus laurina and assumed it was a 

 root borer in this plant, but that has proved erroneous. Successful rear- 

 ing in California apparently has been accomplished only by C. M. Dam- 

 mers, of Riverside, and C. Henne, of the Los Angeles Museum. These 

 keen observers found pupal shells about the base of Cucurhita palmata 

 in the desert near Blythe, Colorado River region, in September and 

 October 1936; and in the underground tubers, about 2 inches thick and 

 2 feet long, there were immature and full-grown larvae. From these 

 tubers, transported and replanted, moths emerged late in the summer 

 of the following year and again in the second year, thus indicating a 2-year 

 life cycle. These investigators also reported moths on the wing in Sep- 

 tember and as late as October. Retarded development is not unusual in 

 extreme desert regions. 



On the Pacific coast, in southwestern Arizona (Paradise), and in 

 southwestern Utah, color variations in gloriosa are not apparent in either 

 sex. The males appear to be typical wherever found. However, a 

 change restricted to the females becomes obvious through the eastern 

 range of the species. It consists in the gradual clearing of the hindwings 

 from opaqueness to transparency ; they become semiclear in central and 

 northern Arizona and quite clear in western Kansas, the eastern limit 

 in the range of the species. This is evidenced by prolonged and careful 

 field investigations and long series of specimens in the United States 

 National Museum. In central Arizona and in western Kansas the food 

 plant was found to be Cucurhita foetidissima. Other wild gourds with 

 sufficiently large underground tubers should serve equally well. 



Records in the United States National Museum : Typical forms, Cor- 

 vallis, Oreg., July-August 1926, male and females (Thompson and 

 Engelhardt) ; Santa Catalina Island, Calif., June 1920, males and females 



