340 



24. Platyptilia modesta Walsingham. PI. XLIII, fig. 12. PI. L, 



fig. 7. 

 Platyptilus modcstus Walsingham, Peter. Cal. Ore. 18, pi. I, f. 14, 1880. 

 XPlatyptilia modesta Fernald, Smith's List Lep. N. A. 87, 1891. 



Id., Pter. N. A. 31, 1898. 



Id., Bull. 52 U. S. N. M. 443, 1902. 



B. C. Ent. Soc. Check List 42, 1906. 



Meyrick, Gen. Ins. C, 12. 1910. 



Id., Wagner's Lep. Cat. pars 17, 16, 1913. 



Barnes & McDunnough, Check List 150, 1917. 

 Abdomen tawny, thorax and head more brownish-gray with a few white 

 scales. Antennae dark above, pale below. Frontal tuft slight, blunt. Palpi 

 moderate, touched with white above and below. Legs whitish ; fore and mid 

 tibiae striped with gray brown, tarsi and hind legs shaded on one side. 



Primaries grayish brown or brownish gray, blending to buff or tawny 

 on inner margin and heavily irrorate with whitish scales. At middle of cell 

 and before cleft are black or brown dots. The costa is dark as far as cleft. 

 First lobe sometimes with a very faint trace of the outer pale line. Fringes 

 grayish with pale bases; a basal row of dark scales on outer margin and a few 

 scattered dark scales on inner. Marginal scales on costa of first lobe concol- 

 orous with wing. Secondaries brownish gray, fringes with pale bases containing 

 a few inconspicuous scales on inner margin of third lobe. Expanse 21-24 mm. 



The male genitalia, as shown in the figure, are similar to those 

 of the albida group but have relatively broader claspers and a trun- 

 cate-spatulate uncus. 



Distribution : N. Cal. to Colo., N. M. and Ariz. Apr., June, July, 

 Aug. 



We have but four specimens of this species, one from Denver, 

 Colo., one from the Pluachuca Mts., Ariz., and two from Ft. Wingate, 

 N. M. Of tlie last, one has been returned to us by Meyrick as equal 

 to the type of modesta in the British Museum, and the other is a good 

 match for the National Museum cotype of coolcyi mentioned imder 

 that species. As exemplified by these specimens, the species resembles 

 coolcyi but dififers in its smaller size, the absence of the outer pale line 

 on the lobes of the primaries and of the pale dash above the base of 

 the cleft. It is even closer to xylopsamma Meyrick. We should have 

 made the latter a synonym but for the fact that Mr. Meyrick called 

 our attention to the whitish marginal scales on the costa of the first 

 lobe of the primaries. In modesta, as noted, these are concolorous 

 with the wing. 



Nothing is known of the life history. 



