GROTE ON NORTH AMERICAN PYRALID^. 693 



with 11 veins; 4 and 5 from one point; bind wings with 8 veins; the 

 cross vein nearly comi)lete; 4 and 5 together at the 

 extremity of submediau vein ; 8 running close to 7, but 

 free. 



Acrobasis ruhrifaseiella, fig. 6 (neuration). 



Acrulasis ruhrifaseiella Pack., Ann. Lye. N. Hist. 267, 1873. 



$ 2 . Shining brownish-fuscous, shaded with gray 

 at base on costal region over the superposed dark 

 discal points obliquely downward over median space 

 anteriorly. A ridge of dark, raised scales precedes a v 



blood-red baud before the dark, somewhat arcuate, ^^ss. 

 anterior line. Posterior line dark, followed by a faint whitish shade 

 inwardly oblique and straight to median fold, running outwardly, and 

 denticulate over m. nervules. Hind wings dark fuscous. Head and 

 thorax brownish-fuscous. Beneath paler fuscous, without markings. 

 Average expansion 21 mil. 



I have examined between fifty and sixty specimens from Maine and 

 Massachusetts, which vary but little; the red band is apt to become 

 faint, especially in worn individuals, but I can always detect it. Some 

 have the tegulse reddish. The species distantly resembles the European 

 advenella. 



"In one additional specimen from Maine, the fore wing has scattered 

 reddish scales at base and beyond the middle, while the dark transverse 

 stripe is wanting, and the red portion forms a broad, transverse, bright 

 red band. The larva lives in June and early in July between the leaves 

 of the alder, where it makes a horn-shaped case of black cylindrical 

 pellets of excrements, arranged regularly in circles, the additions being 

 made around the mouth of the case. The case is about an inch and a 

 half long ; its mouth a quarter of an inch in diameter. Within, it is 

 densely lined with white silk. The pupa is of the usual color, maho: 

 gany-brown, the end of the abdomen rounded, with six hairs projecting 

 from a transverse supraanal projecting ridge. On each abdominal seg- 

 ment is a dorsal, dusky, transverse stripe, widest on the basal segment. 

 The Museum of the Peabody Academy of Science also contains ten 

 specimens of this moth reared by Mr. T. H. Emerton. The larvae were 

 found feeding on the Sweet Fern {Comptonia aspJenifoUa Ait.), July 7, 

 1866, at Hamilton, Mass., the moth appearing July 20. The case is 

 quite different in form from that previously described, being regularly 

 oval cylindrical ; .55 inch long and .35 inch in diameter. It is con- 

 structed in the same manner as those found on the alder. This striking 

 difference in the form of the case may possibly be due to the difference 

 in the form of the leaves of the food-plant, the large broad leaves of 

 the alder inducing the larva to build a horn-like, much elongated case; 

 while the narrow smaller leaves of the Sweet Fern may have led to the 

 formation of a short oval case. The differences are such as we would 



