NO. 1506. REVISION OF MOTH GENUS ARG YRESTHIA—B USCK. 



Of the true ari(lei'e(j(ji('lJn I have not met with any American specimens, 

 and the species shouUl probalily be exchided from our American List. 

 It is inchided in the present paper on suspicion and in ord(>r to point 

 out the differences of our oredHeUa Clemens. 



Packard in 1871 described BiiccvJatrii' tJixieJIa^ which now proves 

 to be an ArgyrestJua. 



Zeller in 1873 described three American species as follows: guadri- 

 strlgella, deletelltf^ and austerella, and identified Avrongly a fourth 

 species" as his European aMomlnalis^ which name should l)e dropped 

 from the American List. 



Chambers described, during- 1874-1877, seven species of Argyres- 

 tli la — iindulatella^ ap Icimacidella^ helangerelJa^ m on tAlu^ </ uercicolella^ 

 altist^hnella, and pedniontella — l)esides recording the European goe- 

 dartella Linnicus. Of these Chambers himself made nmhdatella a 

 synonym of Zeller's auster'elld^ l)ut, as the description and the types 

 show, it is a good species and should be preserved. 



Lord Walsingham described, in 1882 and 1890, four species in the 

 present genus, namely, siihreftGulata, eupressella^ freyella^ and ph'ei- 

 pmu-teUa^ of wdiich /vv^/rZ/c/ is the species wrongl}^ identified by Zeller 

 as the European (djdonunalls. He furthei' recorded the European 

 mendica Haworth from this country, but this record appears quite 

 erroneous, as shown in detail under Argyresthia rileiella^ new species 

 (see p. 20), the type of which is the unique specimen on which the 

 record of tiunidlca was made, and mendica should thus be excluded 

 from the American list. 



Finally Riley recorded, in 1801, the European pygvuvella Hiibner 

 from this country, and in 1896 Fletcher recorded the European con- 

 juge/hi Zeller, making 19 species rightly recorded from America, to 

 which 5 new species are added in the present paper. Thus alto- 

 gether 24 species of Argyresfhia are known at the present time in 

 this country, which number, however, will undoubtedly be consider- 

 ably augmented, when the fauna is better known. These species may 

 be distinguished by the help of the following analytical key, which, 

 however, should be used with some caution, for the following reasons: 

 (1) Because some of the species are quite close; (2) because the distinc- 

 tion between metallic golden and ))rown may ])e interpreted differ- 

 ently b}- other persons, especiall}" as nearly all the species have a 

 brilliant luster which might be described as metallic by some. Ref- 

 erence to the description and figure ought to make the determination 

 reasonably certain. 



I wish to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. T. W. Smillie, of the 

 U. S. National Museum, for the excellent photographs from which the 

 two accompanying plates are made. The photographs were taken 

 from slides made by the writer, and thus represent the actual speci- 



«The species later described as freijella Walsingham. 



