Nov. I. I9I9 European Corn Borer 175 



PYRAUSTA AINSLIEI 

 Pyrausta ainsliei n. sp. 



Pyrausta penitalis Authores (nee. Grote). 



Underside of palpi near base snow white ; palpi otherwise yellow. Head and thorax 

 yellow. Forewings pale yellowish with very slight dusting of darker cream yellow 

 without the distinctly ferruginous powdering of P. penitalis; transverse antemedial 

 and transverse postmedial lines as in P. penitalis; darker shading beyond transverse 

 postmedial line faint; obicular marking as in P. penitalis; the dusky blotch beyond 

 the cell reduced to a mere shading, scarcely distinguishable; terminal margin and 

 cilia pale yellow; no sex scaling at base of inner margin of fore wing of male. Hind- 

 wing as in P. penitalis except more distinctly marked tlian the pale forms of the latter 

 species and lacking the ferruginous-ochreous margins of the small dark P. penitalis. 

 Male genitalia as figured (PI. 7, C); apex of tegumen rounded; anellus with two long, 

 slender, dorsally projecting arms (anellus lobes) ; harpe with two or three stout spines 

 arising from inner margin of sacculus at fusion with base of clasper; face of clasper 

 triangular. Female genitalia as figured (PI. 8, E, F), with genital opening strongly 

 chitinized anteriorly. Alar expanse, 20 to 27 mm. 



Habitat. — Knoxville, Tenn., type locality (Ainslie and Cartwright); Arlington 

 and Woodburn, Mass. (D. J. Caffrey); Milford, Conn. (M. P. Zapp); Hopewell Junction, 

 N. Y.; Oak Station, Pa. (Fred Marloff); Plummer's Island, Md. (R. P. Currie); Tryon 

 N. C. (W. F. Fiske); Missouri; Maine; St. Johns, Quebec (W. Chagnon). 



Food PLANTS — Polygonum, Ambrosia, Xanthiimi, Eupatoriiun, com. 



Type— Cat. No. 22544, U. S. N. M. 



P. ainsliei was described from one male type and eight male and seven 

 female paratypes. It was named in honor of George G. Ainslie, of the 

 Bureau of Entomology, who has made a special study of the life history 

 and to whom the author is indebted for material and information on its 

 habits. This is the species that has appeared in our collections and 

 literature under the name of P. penitalis Grote. In our catalogues P. 

 nelumhialis Smith is listed as a synonym. Upon examination of the 

 genitalia of the specimens in the United States National Museum it 

 became plain to the author that two distinct species were involved. 

 There is a large series reared from Nelumbo from various sections of the 

 United States. This is one species and differs markedly in adult and 

 lar\^a from the material reared from corn and Polygonum. At first the 

 writer was inclined to the belief that the name P. penitalis might apply 

 to the Polygonum species while P. nelumhialis could be retained as a 

 valid specific name for the lotus or Nelumbo feeder to which it obviously 

 belongs; but unfortunately Grote described P. penitalis from moths 

 reared from lari^ge feeding in the seed receptacles of the western water 

 lily {Nehimho lutea). An examination of his types at the American 

 Museum of Natural History in New York leaves no doubt that what he 

 described was not the Polygonum species. The name P. penitalis, there- 

 fore, must be restricted to the true Nelumbo feeder and P. nelumhialis 

 Smith retained as a synonym. Mi. Ainslie succeeded under artificial 

 conditions in rearing P. ainsliei to maturity on Nelumbo Intca, the food 

 plant of the true P. penitalis, but it is doubtful if both species attack that 



