560 Pomona College Journal ok Entomology 



to the Ptinthciiiae. Tlic secondaries have vein V as strong as the others, but 

 there is a tendency to remove it furtlier from IV, and from its strong and direct 

 association with the median. The head is retracted, small, front flattened, the 

 tongue short and weak though perhaps useful for feeding; but the eyes are naked, 

 unlike those of the Panthcid genera, which are hairy. The thorax is short and 

 quadrate, the legs weak and short, and the general resemblance to the Notodontid 

 structures quite as strong as in Demas. The antennae of the male are pectinated, 

 while those of the female arc simple. 



Six nominal s])ecies have been described of wliich two, abrupta and frater, 

 occur in the Atlantic coast; but extend west to the Rocky Mountain region and 

 through British America, almost across the continent: frater being the most 

 abundant and widely distributed. A scries of very much paler, more powdery 

 forms, with the general type of maculation of frater, makes its appearance in the 

 foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, and extends to the south and south- 

 west into New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California. These are coloradensis 

 Cram., elbea Sm., pallula H}-. Edw., and cinilerella Sm. 



Of these the latter only is known to occur in California, and all my examples 

 are from Los Angeles County. 



Cinderella is at once the smallest, most evenly colored and least contrasting 

 of all the species. It is a pale, powdery, ashen gray, with all the normal markings 

 present; but all powdery and diffuse — none of them sharplj^ defined or contrasting. 

 There is no connection between the median lines and the lower part of the median 

 space is no darker than the rest of the wing. 



I should expect to find pallula and probably elbea as well, in California. 



ACRONYCTA 



Species of moderately robust form, tending to become slight in the smaller 

 species. Head tending to become sunken, front flat or only convex, tongue 

 moderate in length, tending to become soft and without function, palpi moderate 

 or rather short, usually reaching about the middle of the front, eyes naked and 

 without lashes. Thorax almost quadrate, without tuftings, vestiture a mixture of 

 flattened hair and scales, tending to hairy. Abdomen untufted, reaching to or 

 exceeding anal angle of secondaries and usually rather large in proportion to 

 thorax. Legs moderate in size, tibia not spinose, anterior without armature at tip. 



The primaries vary quite a bit in form, ranging from broadly trigonate to 

 narrow, almost lanceolate, so that sections of the genus may be conveniently based 

 on the difference. There is a certain uniformity of color and maculation which 

 renders the species rather easily recognizable, independent of structure. The 

 ground color is almost always of some shade of gray, ranging from almost pure 

 white with a scant powdering of black, to an almost black suffusion over the entire 

 surface. The maculation is always in black, almost always more or less broken, 

 and many species have short black dashes crossing the t. p. line opposite the cell 

 or anal angle, which has given the term "dagger moths" to the members of the 

 genus. 



