12 



TTNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 207 



will prove to be more individual than specific in 

 character. 



The reasons for sinking Seneca and Acrocaula into the 

 synonjTtny of Acrobasis are given in the discussion of 

 their types (pp. 22 and 24). 



Genus Acrohasis, Species 2-7: A. indigenella to 

 A. comptella 



[Male with apical process of gnathos a simple hook; forewing 

 smooth.] 



2. Acrobasis indigenella (Zeller) 

 FiGUBES 3, 134, 641 



lots indigenella Zeller, Isis von Oken, 1848, p. 867. — Riley, 



Fourth annual report on the noxious, beneficial and other 



insects, of the State of Missouri, p. 38, 1872. 

 Phycita nebulo Walsh, Prairie Farmer, p. 308, 1860; Proc. 



Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 9, p. 312, 1863. 

 Phycis indiginella (Zeller) Weed, in Forbes, Fifteenth report of 



the State Entomologist on the noxious and beneficial insects 



of the state of Illinois, p. 65, 1889. 

 Acrobasis indiginella (Zeller) Riley, Canadian Ent., vol. 16, 



p. 237, 1884.— Ragonot, Monograph, pt. 2, p. 118, 1893.— 



Forbes, Cornell Mem. 68, p. 619, 1923. 

 Phycita (Acrobasis) nebulo (Walsh) Riley, Fourth annual report 



on the noxious, beneficial and other insects, of the State of 



Missouri, p. 38, 1872. 

 Phycita (Acrobasis) nebulo nebulella Riley, Fourth annual report 



on the noxious, beneficial and other insects, of the State of 



Missouri, p. 42, 1872. 

 Myelois zelatella Hulst, Ent. Amer., vol. 3, p. 136, 1887. 

 Mineola indiginella (Zeller) Hulst, Phycitidae of N. Amer., p. 130, 



1890. — Quaintance and Siegler, U. S. Dep. Agr. Farmers' 



Bull. 1270, p. 49, 1922.— Essig and Keifer, Monthly Bull. 



California Dep. Agr., vol. 22, p. 155, 1933. — McDonough, 



Check list. No. 6115, 1939. 

 Mineola indigenella nebulella (Riley) Hulst, Phycitidae of 



N. Amer., p. 131, 1890. 



Forewing gray-brown densely dusted with white ; the 

 white dusting concentrated on the upper half of wing 

 and somewhat between subterminal line and outer 

 margin, forming two strongly contrasted white patches, 

 one from costa in subbasal area, the other more or less 

 triangular and extending from costa, between the 

 transverse dark lines, into cell and including the blackish 

 discal spots; the whitish terminal area is less sharply 

 defined and on many specimens somewhat faint; trans- 

 verse antemedial line curving obliquely from basal third 

 of costa to middle of inner margin, indicated chiefly by 

 its outer dark margin, which begins as a conspicuous 

 black triangle on costa ; from inner margin at one-third 

 a blackish line curves upward to meet the antemedial 

 line near costa ; the area enclosed between them reddish 

 ocherous; a similar, smaller spot of the same color on 

 base of inner margin; extreme base of costa blackish; 

 subterminal line sinuate, bordered inwardly and out- 

 wardly by dark lines which begin as blackish spots on 

 costa; from the outer of these a dark band extends 

 transversely across to the base of antemedial line at 

 inner margin, somewhat obscured in the dark ground 

 color on all but the palest and most contrastingly 

 marked specimens; discal spots at end of cell black, 



more or less confluent, usually a black bar along dis- 

 cocellular vein; a more or less broken, black line along 

 terminal margin. Hind wing subpeUucid, pale smoky 

 fuscous; the veins very faintly, if at aU, darkened; 

 a narrow, obscure, dark line along termen. Alar ex- 

 panse, 15-20 mm. Male genitalia as given for the genus. 

 Female genitalia without signum. 



Type localities: "Carolina" (indigenella, in BM); 

 Illinois? (nebulo, lost) ; Missouri? (nebulella, lost); "New 

 York and Canada," (zelatella; the supposed type, cf , 

 in AMNH, ex Kutgers, is labeled "Blanco County, 

 Texas"). 



Food plants: Apple, crabapple, plum, prune, cherry, 

 quince, Crataegus, Cotoneaster, Pyrocantha coccinea. 

 Larva feeding on leaves and forming serpentine resting 

 and hibernating case of silk and frass. 



Disteieution: United States: Maine, Sebec Lake 

 (July); New Hampshire, Hampton (July); Vermont, 

 Clenendon; Massachusetts, Newton Highlands; Connec- 

 ticut, East River (July) ; New York, Catskill Mts., Hion; 

 New Jersey, Rutherford; Pennsylvania, Chambersburg 

 (June, July), Germantown (July), New Brighton (July), 

 Pittsburgh (June); Virginia, Colonial Beach (July), 

 Norfolk (M&j); North Carolina, Tryon (Aug.); Georgia, 

 Savannah (Apr.); Illinois, Chicago, Decatur (May, 

 June, July, Aug.); Missouri, Mossele (June, July), 

 Norborne (Apr., June, July), St. Louis (Aug.) ; Nebraska, 

 Wahoo (May) ; Kansas, Onaga, Wichita (June) ; Missis- 

 sippi, "Agr. CoUege" (May, June, July); Arkansas, 

 Siloam Springs (June), Washington County (July); ^ 

 Texas, Abilene, Blanco County (Sept.), Fort Worth 

 (Sept.), Houston (May, June, Aug.), Kerrville, Victoria 

 (June); California, Lomita, Los Angeles County (Mar.) 

 Orange County (June). (The California records all 

 from plum.) Canada: Ontario, Trenton (June, July); 

 Quebec, Meach Lake (July). 



Apparently generally distributed east of the Rocky 

 Mountains and rather recently introduced into Cali- 

 fornia. 



This species has been considered of economic impor- 

 tance as a defoliator of fruit trees in the Middle States, 

 and in the official list of common names approved by 

 the American Association of Economic Entomologists 

 is designated as the "leaf crumpler." However, it does 

 not seem to be more than a minor pest of local and 

 occasional concern. Several references are made to it 

 in the economic literature but none of these adds any- 

 thing of significance to our knowledge of the insect 

 beyond what is given in the early papers by Walsh and 

 Riley. 



Riley's nebulella was described by him as a variety 

 of nebulo and distinguished from the latter by the more 

 diffused dark shading and the separation of the discal 

 spots on forewing. In the series before me there is 

 considerable variation in the extent and intensity of the 

 dark coloring and the discal mark varies even more, 

 being sometimes divided into two distinct spots or fused 

 into a single bar on different sides of the same specimen, 

 so the varietal designation is hardly worth maintaining. 

 In 1908 (Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, vol. 10, p. 45) 



