AMERICAN MOTHS OF THE SUBFAMILY PHTCITINAE 



133 



the antemedial line and siurounding the discal dots, 

 and some faint pale dusting immediately preceding 

 terminal margin; extreme base of wing pm-plish brown 

 with a shading (in some specimens) of reddish scales, 

 especially towards inner margin; antemedial line pale 

 gray, distinguishable only from inner margin to middle 

 of cell, bordered inwardly by a broad, vertical, blackish 

 brown band which extends to costa, and outwardly by 

 a narrow black line which fuses into the inner dark 

 border towards costa; subterminal line sinuate, paJe 

 gray with narrow, black-brown borders; discal dots 

 distinct, sometimes partially fused. Hind wing light 

 to dark smoky brown; the veins slightly darkened and 

 a dark line along termen. Alar expanse, 16-17 mm. 



Male genitaUa with clasper short, blimt, curved. 

 Cornuti moderately long, approximately the same size 

 and lying side by side. A long slender arm projecting 

 from each dorsolateral angle of vinculum. Female 

 genitalia with two large, opposing, roundly oval, gran- 

 ulate patches on bursa, and some rather strong, darkly 

 pigmented spining on the lobe giving off the ductus 

 seminalis. 



Type localities: California [?] (crassifasciella, lost?) ; 

 unknown (decipientella, in USNM); Lakeland, Fla. 

 (crataegella, in USNM) . 



Food plants: Vaccinium, Crataegus. 



Distribution: Maryland, Plummers Isl. (May); 

 District of Columbia, Washington (May) ; Georgia, Sape- 

 loe (Sept.); Florida, Lakeland (May). 



A male from the District of Columbia (reared from 

 Vaccinium by Chambliss, May 10, 1895) and a similar 

 female from Plummers Isl., Md., in the National Col- 

 lection agree in every detail with Ragonot's figure and 

 description of crassifasciella and were so identified by 

 Dyar. His decipientella was described from a single 

 specimen without locality label. It is merely a dark- 

 suffused male with the pale coloration limited to a more 

 restricted area about the discal spots and some light 

 dusting between the outer veins. The Georgia example 

 (reared from Vaccinium) is a female and matches the 

 type of decipientella except for venation. It is another 

 of the all too frequent phycitid freaks with vein 4 miss- 

 ing from hind wing and 7-8 long stalked. The Barnes 

 and McDunnough tj'pe of crataegella (also a male and 

 reared from Crataegus) differs from typical crassifasciella 

 only in a somewhat more extended and lighter colora- 

 tion of the pale areas of forewing. All three males 

 before me agree in genitalic structure. 



The species is easUy identified by the peculiar develop- 

 ment of the vinculum, not found in any other American 

 species in the genus. 



Dr. Bourgogne informs me that the type oiinquilinella 

 could not be found at Paris. It is probably lost, and I 

 suspect that the California citation in Ragonot's Mono- 

 graph was probably a guess. I have seen nothing from 

 the Pacific Coast States that could possibly be his 

 species. 



271. Nephopteryx bisra Dyar 

 Figure 833 

 Nephopteryx bisra Dyar, Ins. Insc. Menstr., vol 7, p. 51, 1919. 



Fore\ving pale gray-brown; base shaded with black- 

 ish; a straight, narrow, oblique whitish line along inner 

 margin of the inner border of the antemedial line, the 

 latter a thin, oblique, notched, whitish line, obscured 

 towards costa; its inner border a wide blackish band 

 reaching to costa; its outer border a narrow black line; 

 a pale patch on inner margin following the antemedial 

 line; subterminal line distinct, whitish gray, sinuate, 

 margined by narrow blackish brown inner and outer 

 lines; discal spots fused into a lunate mark with a pale 

 surrounding shade; a blackish line along termen. Hind 

 wing pale gray-brown, paler thajn ground color of fore- 

 wing; veins not appreciably darkened; a narrow, dark 

 (brownish) line along termen. Alar expanse, 21 mm. 



Female genitalia with a large granulate patch cover- 

 ing most of dorsal surface of bursa, a smaller latero- 

 ventral patch and some scattered granulations at left, 

 posterior angle on ventral side; bursa otherwise rather 

 densely and finely spinose. 



Type locality: Orizaba, Mexico (type in USNM). 



Food plant: Unknown. 



Known only from the female type. The placement 

 in the second group of Nephopteryx is provisional, pend- 

 ing discovery of a male. In the type, vein 10 of fore- 

 wing is shortly stalked with the stem of 8-9. 



69. Genus Tlascala Hulst 



Tlascala Hulst, Phycitidae of N. Amer., p. 146, 1890.— Forbes, 

 Cornell Mem. 68, p. 623, 1923. (Type of genus: Nepho- 

 pteryx reductella Walker.) 



Tongue well developed. Antenna weakly pubescent; 

 on male, with sinus and enlarged scale tuft in base of 

 shaft. Labial palpus upturned, not appressed to face, 

 cylindrical, smooth scaled, reaching above vertex; 

 second segment of male not hoUowed; third segment 

 moderately long, acuminate. Maxillary palpi of both 

 sexes squamous, appressed to face. Forewing with 

 most of inner border of antemedial line consisting of 

 raised scales; 11 veins; vein 2 from near lower outer 

 angle of cell; 3 from the angle, about equidistant from 

 2 and 4 ; 4 and 5 very shortly stalked or connate, rarely 

 (in individual specimens) closely approximate at base; 

 6 from below upper angle of cell, straight; 8-9 long 

 stalked (for three-fourths of their lengths); 10 from the 

 cell approximate to or connate with the stalk of 8-9 at 

 base, and approximate to it for some distance beyond 

 base; male without costal fold. Hind wing venation 

 similar to that of Meroptera and Nephopteryx. Eighth 

 abdominal segment of male with compound scale tufts. 



Male genitalia with strongly sclerotized, broadly tri- 

 angulate clasper with a row of irregular teeth along its 

 outer margin. Penis armed with two, equally sized, 

 stout, sharply curved, thornlike cornuti. Otherwise 

 as in Nephopteryx. 



