Mar. i, 1921 Lepidoptera Likely to Be Confused with Pink Bollworm 821 



considered a family character. It serves, however, to separate Pyroderces 

 rileyi from the gelechioid forms which it otherwise resembles. 



FAMILY TORTRICIDAE 



platynota rostrana (walker) 



(Pl. 104, a; 105, a) 



Teras rostrana Walker, 1863, in List Lep. Brit. Mus., pt. 28, p. 290. 

 Platynota rostrana Dyar, 1903, List North Amer. Lep.. no. 5383. 



This species and the following two are rather general feeders and are 

 frequently found on cotton and other Malvaceae. We have reared 

 moths of Platynota rostrayxa from cotton, okra {Hibiscus esculentus), 

 Malvaviscus drummondii, Bastardia viscosa, Amaranthus spp., and Cassia 

 tora, collected at Brownsville and several localities in Chambers County. 

 The species is normally a leaf -feeder, tying the terminal leaves and pupat- 

 ing within the tie. We have, however, also found it occasionally feeding 

 on the flower buds of okra and on one occasion (Dec. 31, 191 8) Diven took 

 three larvae at Brownsville in dry cotton bolls, feeding on the lint. They 

 pupated in the loose lint, and moths issued February 7 and March 3, 191 9. 

 In the Chambers County localities larvae were collected during late August 

 and early September, 191 8, which produced moths late in September and 

 early in October of the same year. There are at least two and probably 

 three or more generations a year in Texas. 



The larva is not likely to be confused with the pink bollworm. It is 

 easily separable on the setal characters figured on Plates 104 and 105. 

 The arrangement of the pared dorsal setae (II) on the ninth abdominal 

 segment (that is, on a single chitinization and considerably closer together 

 than any dorsal pair on the eighth abdominal segment) (PI. 105, A), 

 coupled with the normal micro characters of three setae on the pre- 

 spiracular shield of pro thorax, and a close approximation of IV and V 

 on the proleg-bearing abdominal segments, distinguishes the families of 

 the Tortricoidea. In Tortricidae proper (to which this and the two 

 following species belong) seta I on the ninth abdominal segment is much 

 as in the Gelechiidae (that is, rather well separated from III and often 

 as near to II as to III) (PI. 105, A). In the families Olethreutidae and 

 Phaloniidae, on the other hand, I and III are approximate and very 

 often on the same chitinization. 



The pupa is typically tortricoid, with wings short and broad at the tip 

 (not tapering) and having the abdominal segments armed dorsally with 

 a double row of strong spines, those of the anterior rows larger and some- 

 what hooked (compare PI. 108, D). It is distinguished from that of the 

 common olethreutid malvaceous feeder (Crocidosema plebeiana Zell.) by 

 the presence of a well-developed, bluntly rounded cremaster entirely 

 lacking in the latter. 



