September, 1881.] 7;j 



A COMPARISON OF THE PTEROPHORI OF EUROPE AND NORTH 

 AMERICA, SUGGESTED BY LORD WALSINGHAM'S "PTEROPHO- 

 RID.F] OF CALIFORNIA AND OREGON." 



BY 11. C. E. JORDAN, M.D. 



Lord Walsinghain, in his " Pterophoridaa of California and 

 Oregon," gives us the entomological result, as far as the plume-moths 

 are concerned, of rather more than a year's wanderiflgs in Oregon and 

 California. This district may be roughly stated to be the West Coast 

 boundary of ]S"orth America, between the 46th and 34th parallels of 

 latitude, answering, therefore, to an imaginary coast line extending 

 from the middle of France to the north of Africa ; it will be important 

 for us also to bear in mind that all insects identical with European 

 forms have, probably, been first filtered by passing through Asia, that 

 is, taking it for granted, that the exodus has been from, and not into, 

 our quarter of the earth. 



Of course, in so short a time it must be utterly impossible to have 

 exhausted the plumes of so large a district, but how well our author 

 worked is shewn by the fact that thirty-nine species are described as 

 natives, of which twenty-eight are new to science. It seems to me 

 that it will not be a useless task to compare these plumes briefly with 

 those of our own northern Palsearctic region. The author commences 

 with Chrysocorys* our English C. festaliella occurs in Oregon, and six 

 specimens were found ; this little insect was before known to have a 

 wide range, being recorded from Corsica,! but it was not previously 

 known to extend into America. Clemens had, however, described a 

 species from Pennsylvania, very nearly allied to festaliella, viz. : C. 

 erythriella ; its larva feeds on the fruit-racemes of the sumach ; he 

 thus describes it : — " It % tapers anteriorly and posteriorly, incisures 

 deep, segments elevated in the middle, with a single row of transversely 

 arranged epidermic points on each ring, each one giving rise to one or 

 two rather stiff hairs, abdominal legs very slender and short, terminal 

 placed posteriorly. Head with a few hairs, ellipsoidal, pointed, rather 

 small and pale brown. The body is uniform dark green." A third 

 American species, C. felicella, is here figured and recorded from 

 Northern Oregon, in which the wings are " unicolorous fuscous, with 

 a slight purplish tinge," the larvae are again noted, as " small, green, 

 and slightly hairy," they feed on Orthocarpus, one of the Scropitu- 

 lariaceoe ; the cocoon, which is also figured, is of white silk, but 



* In the present paper, all reference to the true position of this genus shall be waived. 



t By Herr Mann. Tineina of Southern Europe, p. 120. 



X Papers of Dr. B. Clemens, edited by H. T. Stainton, p. 132. 



