THE GENUS ALPHEIAS RAG. AND ITS ALLIES 



In his essay on the classification of the Pyralids (Ann. Soc. Ent. 

 Fr. 1890-91) Ragonot (p. 543) creates the three genera All>hcias, 

 Macrotlicca, and Amcstria, placing them at the end of the subfamily 

 Endotrichiinac. In his table of genera (p. 515) Alphcias and Amcstria 

 are separated on palpal structure alone, being identical in venation, 

 whilst both are separated from Macrotlicca by the fact that veins 8 and 

 9 are stalked from 7, in the latter genus 8 and 9 arising separately from 

 7. Hampson in his classification places Alphcias in the Clirysaitginac 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1897, p. 676) and in contradistinction to Rago- 

 not states that vein 10 is free, a point further borne out by his figure of 

 venation ; he had, however, no specimens before him in the museum 

 and his deductions are evidently based on a casual examinaton of 

 Ragonot's type; his figure purports to be a S , but in the liglit of our 

 subsequent remarks it is very evidently a 9 . 



Amcstria and Macrotlicca are placed by Hampson in the Sclwciio- 

 hiinac ; the author was evidently unacquainted with both genera as 

 neither figure nor venation sketch are given. 



In 1904 Dyar creates the genuts Cacothcrapia (Proc. Wash. Ent. 

 Soc. VI, 160) with nigrocincrcclla Hist, as type, at the same time 

 stating that the locality of Texas given in the original description of 

 this species was erroneous and that the type specimens came from 

 American Fork, Utah. He places the genus in the GaUcriinae near 

 Antipilotis Meyr. Later he calls attention (Proc. Wash. Ent. Soc. 

 VII, 30, 1905) to the peculiar structure of the S palpi in the genus 

 and describes a new species, flcxilincalis, from Texas. In 1907 (Jour. 

 N. Y. Ent. Soc. XV, 52) he adds to these a third species, poiida, from 

 Claremont, Calif. Of the above species we have before us a poor 

 S specimen from Stockton, Utah, identified by Dr. Dyar as nigrocin- 

 crcclla, and a series of fresh specimens of the same species in both 

 sexes from Eureka, Utah; further 2 9 co-types (Burnet Co., Texas) 

 in poor condition of flcxilincalis and fresh specimens from Browns- 

 ville, Texas, and finally a long series of what we take to be ponda from 

 San Diego. Calif. 



