18 INSECUTOR INSCITI/E MENSTRUUS 



THE SPECIES OF SPHIDA GROTE 



{Lepidoptera, Noctuid<£) 

 By HARRISON G. DYAR 



The genus Sphida is recognized for a single North American species, 

 obliqua Walker. I find that there are several forms referable to Sphida 

 which have been confused. Apparently all the species live as borers in 

 Typha in the larval state, which has helped to the confusion of the spe- 

 cies, it apparently having been assumed that but one species would inhabit 

 a single food plant. The following table has been constructed to sepa- 

 rate the forms before me. All have a tubercle on the front of the head, 

 though its size and development varies greatly, even in the same species. 



TABLE OF SPECIES OF SPHIDA 



Reniform mark of fore wing narrow, oblique; base of wing whitish at costa. 



obliqua Walker 

 Reniform mark widely elliptical, not strongly oblique. 



Base of fore wing whitish on costa ; anal tuft of female not white. 



Frontal tubercle small; itnal tuft of female black . gargantua Dyar 



Frontal tubercle large ; anal tuft of female concolorous with abdomen. 



pleostigma Dyar 

 Base of costa of fore wing not whitish, concolorous or pinkish ; anal tuft of female 

 white. 

 Smaller ; markings distinct, orbicular and reniform light reddish. 



cecogenes Dyar 

 Larger; markings indistinct, orbicular and reniform dark rusty red. 



anoa Dyar 



Sphida obliqua Walker. 



Edema obliqua Walker, Cat. Brit. Mus., xxxii, 428, 1865. 



Arzama obliquata Grote & Robinson, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, i, 339, 1868. 



Sphida obliqua Hampson, Cat. Lep. Phal. Brit. Mus., ix, 259, 1910. 



I have specimens of this species from Buffalo and Rochester, N. Y., 

 and Washington, D. C. (Department of Agriculture, No. 2367).* The 

 species is no doubt more widely spread. Hampson gives also Canada, 

 Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Florida, and Colorado, which may be 

 provisionally accepted, aJthough it is possible that some of the following 

 species may have been confused. The larvae live in cat-tails {Typha) 



' The notes under 2367 are in an unsatisfactory state, as no record was made of the 

 specimens bred in 1882, nor is the food plant mentioned at all. Both obliqua and 

 cecogenes were bred at different times, but no distinction was noted between them and 

 the records are hojjelessly confused. 



