32 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol, 73 



Originally described from the West Indies and redescribed by 

 Wiedemann from the original specimens and some additional ones 

 which he refers to as South American. I have been unable to dis- 

 cover any trace of the original Fabrician material, or even of the 

 specimens added to the species by Wiedemann. On this account 

 the identification is to some extent a traditional one, the species 

 being the common one of eastern North America which is identified 

 in most collections under this name. It is reasonably certain that 

 Robineau-Desvoidy had this species identified as hifasciata since he 

 refers to the black calypters and mentions specimens from Virginia 

 and Carolina, but he probably had more than one species, as he 

 mentions other specimens from the Antilles. In Robineau-Desvoidy, 

 1863, a Fabrician specimen is redescribed, the statement being made 

 that it bears a label in the handwriting of Fabricius. This seems to 

 agree with the accepted interpretation. 



The literature of this abundant species is confused, since up to the 

 present several species have not been separated. Osten Sacken and 

 Coquillett followed Macquart in including hicinda as a synonym; 

 Williston first indicated the distinctness of the latter, but in 1893 

 hesitated to recognize the forms he figured as distinct species. He 

 suggested, however, that if these characters are specific, there must 

 be "at least a dozen species" in America. Walton in tabulating 

 variations of chaetotaxy in hifasciata in 1912 included in his series of 

 ten specimens three which I now place in townsendi and four of my 

 horealis. In the distribution it is distinctly a species of the Temper- 

 ate Zone, although not rare in southern Florida and represented by 

 one specimen from Guatemala. 



The species has been reared from Lepidoptera, mostly the large 

 kinds; published host records include Citheronia regalis Fabricius 

 (Coquillett, 1897), Basilona imperialis Drury (Brimley, 1922), Ani- 

 sota senatoria Smith and Abbott (Brimley, 1922), Ceratomia undulosa 

 Walker (Brimley, 1922), Dryocampa rubicund& Fabricius (Riley, 

 1873), Hemileuca sp. (Coquillett, 1897). An unpublished host is 

 Ceratomia amyntor Huebner, the parasite being reared by C. Zeimet 

 at Black Mountain, N. C. 



BELVOSIA ARGENTIFRONS, new species 



Male. — Front at vertex 0.34 to 0.37 of the head width, not widening 

 for a short distance. Face, posterior orbit, and cheek silvery, this 

 color extending in an unusual manner upon the parafrontals almost 

 to the vertex; frontal bristles mostly in one row, but a few irregular, 

 the hairs below them black; cheek two-fifths of the eye height with 

 black hairs, some quite coarse. Vibrissae not so far above the mouth 

 as in many of the species, the distance being hardly equal to the 



