AMERICAN MOTHS OF THE SUBFAMILY PHYCITINAE 



145 



Staudinger and Rebel, Catalog der Lepidopteren dea palae- 

 arctischen Faunengebietes, vol. 2, p. 34, 1901. — Spuler, Die 

 Schmetterlinge Europas, vol. 2, p. 211, 1910. — Meyrick, 

 Revised handbook of British Lepidoptera, p. 380, 1928. — 

 Ford, Guide to the smaller British Lepidoptera, p. 10, 1949. 



Pinipestis cacabella Hulst, Ent. Amer., vol. 3, p. 133, 1887. 



Laodamia fusca (Haworth) Ragonot, Ent. Amer., vol. 5, p. 115, 

 1889; Monograph, pt. 1, p. 408, 1893.— Hulst, Phycitidae 

 of N. Amer., p. 156, 1890; U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 52, p. 425, 

 1902.— Forbes, Cornell Mem. 68, p. 628, 1923.— McDun- 

 nough. Check list. No. 6227, 1939. 



Salebria triplagiatella Dyar, Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, vol. 6, 

 p. 109, 1904. — Barnes and McDunnough, Contributions, 

 vol. 3, p. 196, 1916. 



Dioryclria fusca (Haworth) Pierce and Metcalfe, The genitalia of 

 the British Pyrales, p. 3, pi. 2, 1938. 



Maxillary palpus of male in the form of an aigrette. 



Forewing blackish gray, generally of a duskier hue 

 than that of any of the preceding species; transverse 

 lines usually faint and a dull whitish gray, rarely con- 

 trasted against the ground color and when so, chiefly 

 the lower half of antemedial line; the latter bordered 

 outwardly at costa and inwardly at inner margin by 

 blackish patches more or less contrasted against the 

 ground color of the wing; a similar dark shade inwardly 

 bordering the subterminal line ; discal and terminal dots 

 tending to coalesce, black. Hind wing dusky white 

 between the veins; the latter appreciably darkened; a 

 smoky shade along termen. Alar expanse, 25-30 mm. 



Male genitalia with harpe simple except for a thin, 

 saucer-shaped, erect clasper with a toothlike projection 

 from its upper inner angle. Aedeagus slender with its 

 anterior end abruptly expanded and anterior margin 

 straight (as in hypochalciella) ; one side produced into 

 an extended, strongly sclerotized arm, sharply bent and 

 pointed at apex (as in criddlella) ^ ; penis armed with a 

 single, moderately long, hairlike cornutus. Three pairs 

 of ventrolateral hair tufts on eighth abdominal segment 

 of male, some of the hairs broadly expanded at their 

 apices. 



Female genitalia with bursa membranous; ductus 

 bursae sclerotized for most of its length, the sclerotiza- 

 tions extending for a short distance into the bursa; 

 genital opening simple except for some weak granula- 

 tions on and behind the ductus bursae. 



Type locahties : England (Jusca, in BM) ; eastern 

 Canada {moestella, in BM) ; Caribou Is., Labrador 

 (frigidella, in MCZ); "New York"' (cacabella, in 

 AMNH, ex Rutgers); Winnipeg, Manitoba {triplagia- 

 tella, m USNM). 



Food plants: Erica and probably some other Erica- 

 ceae. The only authentic Old World record is Erica 

 (Meyrick 1938, Ford 1949). Ragonot (Monograph, 

 p. 408) records Vaccinium myrtellus and Salix caprea as 

 probabilities; but these plants only on the basis of food 

 accepted in the laboratory by larvae hatched from eggs 

 from gravid females by Porritt (Ent. Monthly Mag., 



' This extension of aedeagus was misidentified by Pierce and 

 Metcalfe (1938) as a cornutus. They overlooked the true 

 cornutus attached to the vesica. 



• So given in Hulst's original description. The male type, how- 

 ever, bears no locality label. 



vol. 19, p. 11, 1882). A female in the U. S. National 

 Museum from Ottawa, Canada, was reared by James 

 Fletcher (Aug. 1889) from a "black larva" found on 

 Betula. I suspect, however, that the larva had migrated 

 to that plant. We have no other New World rearing 

 records. 



Distribution: Holarctic. In the Old World from 

 Great Britain to Japan. The American records from 

 specimens are: United States: Maine, Orono; New 

 Hampshire, Hampton (June) , Mount Washington (July) ; 

 Massachusetts, Framingham (July) , Martha's Vineyard 

 (Aug.) ; New York, Rochester (June), Waterville (Aug.) ; 

 Colorado, Glenwood Springs (Aug.); Washington, Pull- 

 man. Canada : Newfoundland, Port aux Basque (Aug.) , 

 St. George Bay (Harry's River and Stephenville, Aug.), 

 Spruce Brook {Km^.) ; Labrador , Caribou Isl., Hopedale, 

 Nain; Nova Scotia, Baddeck (Cape Breton Isl., Aug.); 

 Quebec, Chelesea (May); Ontario, Albany River (St. 

 Martin's Falls), Hymers (Aug.), Ottawa (June, Aug.); 

 Manitoba, Aweme (June, July, Aug.), Winnpieg;.4Z5erta, 

 Banff (July), Calgary (Aug.), Edmonton (May) ; British 

 Columbia, Eraser Mills (June), Kaslo (July, Aug.), 

 Shawnigan Lake (Aug.), Victoria (July). Alaska: 

 Cordova, Fort Yukon, Juneau (July), Rampart (July). 



The species can be readily distinguished by its aede- 

 agus, threadlike cornutus, and the peculiar sclerotization 

 of its ductus bursae. On habitus and aU its structural 

 characters it is closely related to the gray-winged 

 species of Pyla. Superficially it could easily be con- 

 fused with impostor, equivoca, or aenigmatica. It is not 

 congeneric with. Jaecella (ZeUer), the type of Laodamia, 

 to which genus Ragonot referred it. The latter differs 

 markedly in male and female genitalia (figs. 427 and 

 885), and on venation falls into our venational group D. 

 Both Pyla and Laodamia have the cell of hind wing 

 short; but in Laodamia vein 3 is appreciably longer in 

 relation to vein 2 (fig. 52) . 



Packard's Jrigidella was retained by Ragonot as a 

 separable variety from /wsca, but it is at most only one 

 of its color variants and is not entitled to any trinomial 

 designation as a race. 



Several Old World references and synonyms have 

 been omitted from the above synonymy. I do not 

 question them, but have not been able to verify them. 

 Anyone interested will find the names and references in 

 Hulst (Phycitidae of N. Amer., 1890) and Ragonot 

 (Monograph, 1893). 



296. Pyla hypochalciella (Ragonot), new combination 

 Figures 370, 854 



Nephopteryx ovalis hypochalciella Ragonot, N. Amer. Phycitidae, 

 p. 7, 1887.— Hulst, Phycitidae of N. Amer., p. 144, 1890. 



Nephopteryx hypochalciella Ragonot, Monograph, pt. 1, p. 272, 

 1893.— McDunnough, Check list. No. 6168, 1939. 



Pyla blackmorella Dyar, Ins. Insc. Menstr., vol. 9, p. 68, 1921. — 

 McDunnough, Check list. No. 6248, 1939. (New syn- 

 onymy.) 



Maxillary palpus of male in the form of an aigrette. 



Forewing very dark gray-brown, the dark areas of 



some of the darkest specimens almost black;a veiyfaint 



