AMERICAN MOTHS OF THE SUBFAMILY PHYCITtNAE 



33 



58. Crocidomera turbidella Zeller 

 Figures 182, 664 



Crocidomera turbidella Zeller, Isis von Oken, 1848, p. 865. — 

 Ragonot, Monograph, pt. 1, p. 132, 1893. 



Ground color of forewing variable, pale ocherous gray 

 or white shaded with faintly reddish or reddish brown on 

 outer area and in a narrowing shade towards base along 

 inner margin; an indistinct blackish spot on costa 

 beyond base; two other blackish dots marking the place 

 of the obsolete antemedial line, one on costa, the other 

 at top of cell; a dark patch on inner margin at what 

 would be the inner margin of the antemedial line, on 

 well marked specimens containing one or two minute 

 black dots or dashes; sub terminal pale line faint but 

 distinguishable, indicated chiefly by an inner border of 

 black spots on the veins and similar, fainter dark streaks 

 (or a confluent dark shade) bordering it outwardly; a 

 row of black dots along termen, quite marked on fresh 

 specimens; discal dots at end of cell small, black, more 

 or less confluent, when separated the lower not appreci- 

 ably enlarged; below these, on the fold of some speci- 

 mens, a larger spot of reddish or brown scales. Hind 

 wing transparent, opalescent white with a faint fuscous 

 shading at apex and at the vein ends and a fine dark 

 line along termen. Alar expanse, 20-25 mm. 



Male genitalia with apical process of gnathos bluntly 

 rounded at apex; uncus sub triangulate, its apical mar- 

 gin evenly rounded; central projection of transtilla 

 V-shaped, the prongs divergent and rather slender; 

 harpe with outer margin of cucullus evenly rounded. 

 Female genitalia with sclerotization along lower margin 

 of genital opening narrow and but slightly wrinkled. 



Type locality: "South America" (type in BM). 



Food plant: Unknown. 



Distribution: Cuba: Baracoa, Santiago (June, Oct.). 

 Jamaica. Mexico: Jalapa. United States: Texas, 

 San Benito (May, Oct.) . These localities from examples 

 (in USNM) from which the foregoing description was 

 drawn. 



I have omitted the Moschler reference cited by 

 Ragonot for I suspect that the Puerto Rican specimens 

 which he and Ragonot had and from which the Ragonot 

 description was partly drawn are not turbidella but 

 fissuralis without the peculiar longitudinal black streak 

 on forewing characteristic of the type oi fissuralis. I 

 have seen no specimens of Crocidomera from any South 

 American locality except the Bolivian example men- 

 tioned in the following discussion of fissuralis. I doubt 

 that this could be Zeller's species. 



59. Crocidomera fissuralis (Walker) 

 Figures 183, 665 



Nephopteryx fissuralis Walker, List, vol. 27, p. 58, 1863. 

 Myelois (?) adonea Felder and Rogenhofer, Reise . . . Novara . . ., 



Lepidoptera, pi. 137, fig. 8, 1874. 

 Crocidomera fissuralis (Walker) Moschler, Die Lepidopteren- 



Fauna von Portorico, p. 327, 1890. — Ragonot, Monograph, 



pt. 1, p. 133, 1893. 



A photograph of the female type oi fissuralis shows a 

 specimen with a strongly contrasted, black longitudinal 



streak on forewing extending along lower median vein 

 from base of wing to sub terminal line and giving off two 

 short forks, one along vein 2, the other along vein 3. 

 The figure of adonea, presumably also a female, shows a 

 similar marking. I have seen nothing to match this 

 peculiar pattern except one female from the Janse col- 

 lection from the Provincia del Sara (Department of 

 Santa Cruz), BoHvia. The genitalia of this specimen 

 match those of fissuralis fairly well except for the 

 sclerotization of the ductus bursae, which is more like 

 that of stenopteryx. The specimen cannot be placed with 

 certainty until a male from the type locality is associated 

 with it. I doubt very much that the peculiar longi- 

 tudinal streaking represents anything more than an 

 aberrational or varietal character; for I have before me 

 a series of three males and three females from Puerto 

 Rico which lack the longitudinal streak, but are obvi- 

 ously distinct specifically from what I have recognized 

 as turbidella. Their female genitalia are identical in all 

 details with those of the tj^pe oi fissuralis. On super- 

 ficial characters they differ from turbedilla chiefly in 

 having the lower discal spot at end of cell more pro- 

 nounced and distinctly enlarged in comparison to the 

 upper discal spot. Alar expanse, 25-30 mm. 



Male genitalia with terminal margin of uncus notched ; 

 apical projection of gnathos slightly notched at apex; 

 central projection of transtUla with its prongs converging 

 towards their apices; harpe with cucullus trianguJate, 

 its apex narrowly rounded ; aedeagus much stouter and 

 its thornlike spines stronger and more numerous than 

 those of turbidella or stenopteryx; terminal margin of 

 vinculum nearly straight, terminal part of vinculum pro- 

 portionally about twice as wide as that of either turbi- 

 della or stenopteryx. Female genitalia with ventral 

 plate at genital opening deeply wrinkled. 



Type localities: Santo Domingo [Dominican Re- 

 public] (fissuralis, adonea, both in BM). 



Food plant: Unknown. 



Distribution: Dominican Republic. Puerto 

 Rico: Aguirre Central (Apr.), Coamo Springs (Apr.), 

 Culebralsl. (Feb.). 



60. Crocidomera stenopteryx (Dyar), new combination 



Figures 181, 663 



Dioryctria stenopteryx Dyar, Ins. Insc. Menstr., vol. 10, p. 16, 

 1922. 



Forewing ocherous gray with blacldsh markings; a 

 black dot at base of cell ; three black streaks beyond on 

 lower median vein ; a couple of black dots on costa near 

 base; a black discal spot at lower, outer angle of del; 

 antemedial pale line indicated below median vein, pre- 

 ceded by a dark patch on inner margin (somewhat 

 tinted with reddish brown on female), margined out- 

 wardly by an obscure, blackish line, beyond which 

 on inner margin a somewhat diffused dark shade; vein 

 lb more or less outlined in black scaling; subterminal 

 line faint, bordered inwardly and outwardly by some 

 blackish dots or streaklets on the veins ; a fine black line 

 along termen (formed by the confluent terminal dots). 

 Hind wing transparent, hyaline white with a faint 



