THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



143 



" In a recent Bulletin of Hayden's Geological and 

 Geographical Survey of the Territories (vol. iii, 

 No. i) is an extended article by Mr. V. T. 

 Cliambers on ' The Tineina of Colorado,' in 

 which, on the very first page (121 of the Bulletin) 

 the following paragraph occurs : 



" Proiiuba yticcasella Riley. — Very abundant in 

 the flowers of '.soap-weed' {Yucca) as high up 

 on the mountains as 7,000 feet, in the vicinity of 

 Colorado Springs, Mr. Riley says (Fifth An- 

 nual Report Noxious and Beneficial Insects of Afis- 

 souri, p. 151), 'Front wings uniformly silvery- 

 white,' but at least half of the numerous speci- 

 mens observed by me in Colorado had the wings 

 more or less spotted with black (like Hypono- 

 meuta, to which in the form and neuration of the 

 wings it seems somewhat allied, though its affi- 

 nities seem to be rather with the true Tineidce ; 

 it is, however, sui generis). These spots vary 

 in number from o to 13, and when all are present 

 are arranged as follows : one (the largest) at the 

 end of the disk, with three others before it, making 

 a coffin-shaped figure ; one on the dorsal margin 

 before the cilia, and eight others around the 

 apex. The one at the end of the cell is found 

 oftener than any of the others, and those around 

 the apex oftener than the other four. The ex- 

 panse of wings is given by Mr. Riley at i.oo inch 

 for the S and o.go inch for the ,5 . The largest 

 S specimen observed by me scarcely exceeded 

 10 lines and the smallest ', was scarcely 6 lines, 

 so that it seems to attain a greater development 

 of wings in the east than in the west, contrary to 

 the rule said by Prof. Baird, Dr. Packard, and 

 others, to prevail among other insects and birds." 



" The statements in the above extract are al- 

 together erroneous, being based upon mistaken 

 identity. A careful examination of these sup- 

 posed spotted Pronubas which I have been per- 

 mitted to make, through the courtesy of Dr. H. 

 A. Hagen, of Cambridge, Mass., whither Mr. 

 Chambers had sent all his examples, enables 

 me to state positively that the spotted moths 

 which Mr C. mistook {ox Pronuba yuccasella are, in 

 reality, Hyponomeuta ; and, what is the more , 

 remarkable, they are one of Mr. C/s own de- 

 scribed species — H. '^-punctella. Of the six 

 specimens submitted to me, there was but one 

 Pronuba, and that was immaculate, as the species 

 always is. The spots on Hyponomeuta are very 

 variable, while some individuals of ^-punctella 

 are immaculate, when at first sight thej' might be 

 mistaken for Pronuba. Setting aside the less 

 easily observed venation, this Hyponomeuta may 

 at once be distinguished from Pronuba by its 

 smaller size, narrower and at the same time less 

 pointed wings, and more pearly-white color. 

 The t, differs in the anal hooks, and the S in 

 having the ovipositor of different shape and faintly 

 notched superiorly,* as well as in lacking the 

 characteristic maxillary tentacles. 



"I have reared upward of 500 specimens of /'ra- 



* This faintly notched character of the ovipositor is notice- 

 able exceptionally in both species, and is evidently due to a 

 varied degree of contraction in the dry specimens. 



nuba, and have it from South Carolina, Texas, 

 California, Colorado, and Missouri, and there is 

 never the faintest tendency to maculation. The 

 tendency to variation is, also, exceptionally 

 small." 



We assumed that Mr. Chambers had 

 made a proper reference in describing his 

 Hxponoinciita j-piinctella, but we are now 

 perfectly satisfied that he had not, since 

 many specimens of Prodo.xiis agree exactly 

 in maculation with his description and 

 figure. More careful study plainly shows 

 that Proiloxus does not even belong to the 

 same family, but must be placed with Pro- 

 nuba in the Tineidce. Pfyponomeuta not 

 only has, ordinarily, serrate antennae, but 

 it lacks the maxillary palpi which help to 

 distinguish the Tineidte, while the joints of 

 the labial palpi are differently proportioned 

 The venation of the wings also differs 

 greatly, the forked disco-longitudinal ven- 

 let of the primaries being absent and the 

 basal portion of the internal vein not being 

 forked. The secondaries in Hypotiomeuta 

 have, moreover, a notch beyond the middle, 

 and there are other minor differences. Mr. 

 Chambers, in reply to our strictures above 

 quoted, has published some 14 pp.* of matter 

 containing many interesting but irrelevant 

 facts, and more that is funny than con- 

 vincing when it comes to the point at issue. 

 He brings forward no fresh evidence e.x- 

 cept such as he calls circumstantial, and 

 admits that he does not " pretend that they 

 [the arguments] are conclusive of the 

 question, especially when opposed to the 

 positive statements of so competent an 

 observer," when a careful re-examination of 

 his specimens would have saved him so 

 much fruitless labor. That such re-exami- 

 nation was not, however, easy, we have 

 since been made aware by being ourselves 

 unable to make the re-examination of his 

 supposed spotted Pronubas, the types of 

 which are in the Cambridge museum. 

 Fortunately we are confirmed in our opin- 

 ion without such re-examination of the 

 types, by the very facts which Mr. Cham- 

 bers urges in his reply above cited, the 

 position of the five spots in his H\pono- 



* Jour. Cin. Soc. of Nat. His., Oct., 187S. 



