The Brown Ctenucha 



Cteniicha hrunnea Stretch 



E. O. EssiG 

 University of California, Berkeley, California, 



Order — Lepidoptera Family — Syntomida 



The moths of the genus Ctenucha are exceedingly beautiful and 

 interesting, and inasmuch as little is known regarding the different 

 stages in the development of some of the species the writer has 

 taken this means of recording the main facts in the metamorphosis 

 of one of them. In California there are three common species all 

 very much alike in appearance and probably in habits. Through 

 the aid of my brother, S. H. Essig, I have been able to secure all 

 the stages from the egg to the adult of what I have been calling 

 the brown Ctenucha, C. briiunea Stretch. The common name orig- 

 inated from the fact that the upper surfaces of the primary wings 

 of this species are deciciedly light-brown in appearance, in contrast 

 to the very dark-brown or almost black wings of the other Cali- 

 fornia species as given in the note below. ^ 



Description 



Effffs (Fig. 1). The eggs are round, somewhat flattened dor- 

 sally, pearly-white when first laid, but gradually becoming deep- 

 yellow just before hatching. They are very small, averaging about 

 1 mm. in diameter and are laid in short rows of from 2 to 7 or 

 more, either touching at the sides or about the diameter of an egg 

 apart. 



Larva (Fig. 2). The first hatched caterpillars are exceedingly 

 small but very active. They are light, transparently-yellow in color 



1. Key to the California species of Ctenucha 



A. Area between and around eyes brown or blacic B 



Area between and around eyes red ritbroscapus Menetries 



B. Front wings light brown hrunnea Stretch 



Front wings very dark brown multifaria Walker 



Ctenucha rubroscapus Menetries (Fig. 6). According to Stretch (Zygaenidae and 

 Bombycidae of N. A., pp. 29-30, 1871-1873) this is a true mountain insect occurring in 

 the Sierras at an altitude of 4,500 ft., frequenting streams. It has been taken in the 

 region of Yosemite Valley. Syn. — C. ochroscapus Grote and Robinson; C. corvina 

 Boisduval; C. ^valsingham'i Hy. Edw. Ctenucha multifaria Walker (Fig. 7) is abund- 

 ant in the lowlands of the San Francisco Bay region. 



