Mar. i, igii Lepidoptcra Likely to Be Confused with Pink Bollworm 829 



1 91 9 (Hanson) pupated the latter part of March and produced moths 

 from April 5 to May 22, 1919. Neither larva nor work were found in cot- 

 ton or okra or on any of the various species of Hibiscus, though there 

 appears to be no reason why these plants should escape. 



The full-grown larva is somewhat larger than a mature pink bollworm 

 (22-22.5 mm. long) and is easily distinguished from it by the pyralid ar- 

 rangement of the body setae (two setae only on prespiracular shield of pro- 

 thorax and IV and V approximate on proleg-bearing abdominal segments). 

 The structural characters of larva and pupa are fully illustrated in 

 Plates 101, 104, and 109. These and the larval habits will serve to 

 identify the species and distinguish it readily from any other lepidopteron 

 of similar food plant and habits. 1 



SUBFAMILY PYRAUSTINAE 



NOCTUELIA RUFOFASCIAUS (STEPHENS) 



Ennychia rufofascialis Stephens, 1834, Illus. Brit. Ent., Haust, v. 4, p. 33. 

 Botys (?) thalialis Walker, 1859, List Lep. Brit. Mus., pt. 18, p. 582. 

 Noctuelia thalialis Hampson, 1899, in Proc. Zool. Soc. London, pt. 1, p. 279, 1899. 

 Noctuelia thalialis Dyar, 1903, List North Amer. Lep., no. 4478. 

 Noctuelia rufofascialis Barnes and McDunnough, 1918, Contrib. Nat. Hist. 

 Lep. North Amer., v. 4, no. 2, p. 167. 



The larva of this species is a seed-feeder in pods of Abutilon, Wissadula, 

 Malvastrum, Sida, and possibly other malvaceous or similar plants. It 

 feeds in much the same way as the pink bollworm and pupates in a thin 

 cocoon either in the empty seed pod or on the outside of the plant. Two 

 larvae were taken at Brownsville, Tex., April 11, 1919, by Diven feeding 

 in the young terminal shoots of cotton. This habit, however, is unusual. 

 When full-grown the larva is about the size of a full-fed pink bollworm 

 and seems ridiculously large for the small seed pods within which it must 

 accommodate itself. It is very strikingly and beautifully marked and 

 very similar to the caterpillers of Gelechia bosquella Chambers and Bork- 

 hausenia diveni, elsewhere mentioned in this paper. It is readily dis- 

 tinguished from them by the pyraloid setal arrangement of the pro- 

 thorax (two setae only in the prespiracular group). The general body 

 color is white with the thoracic segments and anterior half of the first 

 abdominal segment a deep wine-red. The remaining abdominal segments 

 are also partially encircled by a broad band of the same color. The head 

 is light yellow, and the thoracic and anal shields are yellow or brownish, 

 the legs smoky fuscous, and the crochets of the prolegs (7 to 10) uniordinal 

 and arranged in a circle broken outwardly as in the pink bollworm — a very 

 unusual structure in this subfamily. 



1 It should be noted that puncture A a on the epicranium is somewhat differently located on different 

 specimens, sometimes higher, sometimes lower, occasionally even lying between seta A 3 and L 1 and fre„ 

 quently differently placed on opposite sides of the same head. Body seta IV on abdominal segment 9 is 

 also very often absent. When present it is always short and inconspicuous. 



