AMERICAN MOTHS OF THE SUBFAMILY PHYCITINAE 



47 



This genus is easily recognized and is distinguished 

 from other sections of the "Alyelois" complex by its 

 labial palpi and male genitalia. 



In their normal position the palpi are directed in a 

 straight line obliquely from the face; but many speci- 

 mens show the third segment more or less deflefcted for- 

 ward, and some with both the second and third seg- 

 ments more or less porrected, results of the death con- 

 tortions of the moths. Several European species listed 

 under Myelois have oblique palpi but they are all more 

 or less cylindrical and do not have the broadly scaled 

 and flattened lateral aspect of those of Paramyelois. 

 The male genitalia with their incomplete transtilla (its 

 elements reduced and well separated) are unique among 

 the groups nearly related to Myelois or any of the Ameri- 

 can species that previously have been referred to that 

 genus. 



I have chosen a sjmonym as type of the new genus 

 advisedly, as the type specimen of the oldest name 

 {transiteUa) is a female, and there may be some question 

 of my application of the name to the species here treated. 

 There can be no such doubt in regard to solitella. 



83. Paramyelois transit ella (Walker), new combination 

 Figures 202, 683 



Nephopteryx transiteUa Walker, List, pt. 27, p. 54, 1863. 



Nephopteryx notatalis Walker, List, pt. 27, p. 57, 1863. 



Myelois solitella Zeller, Horae Soc. Ent. Rossicae, vol. 16, p. 217, 

 1881.— Ragonot, Monograph, pt. 1, p. 55, 1893. (New 

 synonymy.) 



Myelois duplipunctella Ragonot, N. Amer. Phycitidae, p. 3, 1887; 

 Monograph, pt. 1, p. 56, 1893. — McDunnough, Check list, 

 No. 6059, 1939. (New synonymy.) 



Myelois transiteUa (Walker) Ragonot, Monograph, pt. 1, p. 42, 

 1893 (in part).— McDunnough, Check list. No. 6058, 1939 

 (in part). 



Myelois venipars Dyar, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 47, p. 404, 

 1914. — Mote, Monthly Bull. California Dep. Agr., vol. 11, 

 p. 628, 1922. — Glick, Arizona Comm. Agr. and Hort., Four- 

 teenth Ann. Rep., p. 78, 1922. — Essig, Insects of western 

 North America, p. 708, 1929. — Hixon, Journ. Econ. Ent., 

 vol. 27, p. 547, 1934. (New synonymy.) 



Emporia cassiae Dyar, Ins. Insc. Menstr., vol. 5, 91, 1917 

 (new synonymy). 



Similar in color and maculation to Ectomyelois muris- 

 cis except: Ground color on lower half of wing darker; 

 the dark borders of the transverse lines and the discal 

 dots decidedly darker, blackish; the white areas more 

 strongly contrasted ; the dark outer border of antemedial 

 complete in most examples and enlarged below costa 

 into a conspicuous blackish spot. Hind wings a clearer 

 white on the males ; more or less smoky on the females. 

 Alar expanse, 15-28 mm. 



Genitalia as given for the genus. The male genitalia 

 show little or no individual variation. Among the fe- 

 males, however, there is considerable variability in mi- 

 nor details, namely, the amount of sclerotization about 

 genital opening and the amount of scobination in the 

 bursa, but these are differences of no specific significance. 



Type localities: "United States," probably Florida 

 (transiteUa, in BM) ; Santo Domingo (^notatalis, in BM) ; 

 Colombia (solitella, in BM) ; Florida (duplipunctella, in 



Paris Mus.); Hermosillo, Mexico (venipars, in USNM); 

 Georgetown, British Guiana (cassiae, in USNM). 



Food plants: Orange, grapefruit, peach, apple, dates, 

 figs, Acacia farnesiana, Aesculus glabra. Cassia grandis, 

 Genipa americana, Gleditsia tnacanthos, Pithecolobium 

 flexicaule, Robinia, Sapindus drummondii, Yucca, English 

 walnut. These records from reared specimens in the 

 U. S. National Museum. 



Disteibution: United States: Arizona, Maricopa 

 County (Dec), Mesa (Nov.), Phoenix (Aug., Sept., 

 Nov., Dec), Tempe, Yuma; Texas, Anahuac (March), 

 Brownsville (Dec), Dallas (May), Fort Davis (Oct.), 

 Harlingen (July), Hidalgo County (Apr.), KerrviUe, 

 Louise (Feb.), Mercedes (Feb.), Mission, San Antonio 

 (May) , San Benito (Sept.) ; Oklahoma, Stillwater (June) ; 

 Louisiana, Forbing (Oct.); Alabama, Mobile (Apr.); 

 Georgia, St. Simons; Florida, Orlando (Oct., Nov.), Vero 

 Beach (Apr., May) ; North Carolina, Durham. Cuba. 

 Dominican Eepublic. Mexico: Hermosillo, Oaxaca. 

 Guatemala: Cayuga (Mar., Apr.), Chejel (June). Pan- 

 ama: El Cermeno (Apr., June). Colombia. Brazil: 

 Tapera (Pernambuco) . PerIj: Lima, Rio Pacaya (June, 

 July, Aug.). 



This species has attracted some attention in the south- 

 west as a minor orchard pest and is known to economic 

 entomologists as the "navel-orange worm." The larvae 

 feed on the nuts, in the seed pods, or on the fruits of 

 numerous trees but they seem to prefer the fallen and 

 mummied fruits or the dry seed pods or injured or 

 diseased fruits. Rarely do they attack sound fruit on 

 the trees. They have been reported as infesting sound 

 oranges, but such behavior is probably an exceptional 

 departure from normal habit. 



The foregoing sjTionymy requu'es some comment. I 

 have not seen the types of transiteUa or duplipunctella 

 (both females), but from the original descriptions and 

 the Ragonot figm-es they cannot apply to anything else 

 than the species we have hitherto known in the United 

 States as venipars Dyar. Of the synonymy of venipars 

 and solitella there is no possible doubt. The type of the 

 latter is a male (not a female as stated by Zeller) and 

 figures of its genitalia, supplied by Tams and Clarke, 

 show agreement in every detaU with those of venipars. 

 Clarke has also furnished excellent photographs of the 

 female types of transiteUa and notatalis and of the geni- 

 talia of transiteUa. The latter show only trifling indi- 

 vidual differences from the genitalia of Dyar's female 

 type of venipars. Unfortunately^, the type of notatalis 

 lacks an abdomen; but photogi-aphs of the moths and 

 their palpi show no essential differences between the two 

 types; so Ragonot's reference of notatalis to synonymy 

 must be accepted. In his specific key to the species of 

 "Myelois" Ragonot (Monograph, pt. 1, p. 27) places 

 transiteUa in a group with veins 7 and 8 of hind wing 

 approximate. This characterization was obviously 

 based upon a freak specimen. Dyar found one such 

 freak (a female from Grenada) among the examples of 

 muriscis which he misidentified as "transiteUa"; but in 

 over a hundred examples of the true transiteUa before 

 me veins 7 and 8 are strongly anastomosed, and this is 



