346 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



A NEW SPECIES OF JAPANESE MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA. 



BY W. D. KEARFOTT, MONTCLAIR, N. J. 



A pair of specimens of the species herewith described were sent to 

 me by Dr. John B. Smith, the latter part of May, with the statement that 

 they had been bred from larvae found on young hemlock trees, recently 

 imported from Japan by a nurseryman in this State. As the species was 

 unknown to me and of a distinctly Oriental appearance, I sent a male to 

 Dr. Edward Meyrick, Marlborough, England, the authority on Eastern 

 Lepidoptera. Dr. Meyrick was good enough to make a prompt reply, 

 stating that the species was undoubtedly referable to his genus Ptochoryctis, 

 of which he has already described five others, all from Indian regions, and 

 that the nearest allied genera, Methathritica and Linodostis, are also only 

 known from India and the Malay Archipelago, hence he did not doubt 

 that this species is truly Japanese. Dr. Meyrick also stated that the 

 species nearest to it is P. sijnbleuta Meyr., the larvte of which are brick-red, 

 and feed beneath a web, covered with refuse and pieces of bark, on bark 

 and shoots of tea-plants (Thea), eating right through to the cambium, and 

 thus killing the branch or plant. (Journal Bombay Natl. Hist. Soc, 

 XVIII, 150, 1907.) 



This letter was duly communicated to Dr. Smith, and he was good 

 enough to forward fourteen other specimens, together with notes, larvse, 

 cocoons or cases and pupal shells, from all which the following description 

 was made : 



The larvse were taken April 5th, in cocoons or larval-cases, larvse all 

 alive at this date, first pupa observed May 4th. 



My belief is that the cocoons in which the larvse pupated are larval- 

 cases, making the habit similar to P. simbleuta. The case is of rather 

 tough silk, thickly covered with pellets of dried frass, hemlock-needles 

 and other refuse, lightly fastened to the twigs and apparently fairly well 

 concealed in a cluster of needles. The cases are 10-15 "^f"- ^0"g' t>y 5-6 

 mm. in diameter. Pupal shell remains within the case when moth emerges. 



As it is quite possible that other shipments of hemlock from Japan 

 may be infested with this species, it might be well for State entomologists 

 and nurserymen to be on the lookout for its appearance. The moth is 



October, 1910 



