230 



UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 207 



131. Genus Laetilia Ragonot 



Laetilia Ragonot, Entomologica Americana, vol. 5, p. 116, 1889; 

 Bull. Soc. Ent. France, p. viii, January 1890. — Hulst, 

 Phycitidae of N. Amer., p. 182, 1890. — Hampson, in Rago- 

 not, Monograph, pt. 2, pp. 116, 560, 1901. — Forbes, Cornell 

 Mem. 68, p. 631, 1920. (Type of genus: Dakruma cocci- 

 divora Comstock.) 



Laosticha Hulst, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 52, p. 431, 1902.— Dyar, 

 Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, vol. 6, p. 159, 1904. (Type of 

 genus: Dakruma ephestiella Ragonot.) 



Tongue short (greatly reduced in melanostathma and 

 glomis, but not completely enclosed and hidden by the 

 labial palpi). Antenna pubescent, shaft simple in both 

 sexes. Labial palpus oblique or obliquely upturned 

 (males of melanostathma and zamacrella). Maxillary 

 palpus filiform or subsquamous (coccidivora) . Hind 

 wing with veins 7 and 8 anastomosing for at least half 

 their distance beyond cell; 3 and 5 stalked. Eighth 

 abdominal segment of male simple. 



Male genitalia with apex of uncus normally broadly 

 rounded (somewhat narrowly roxinded in coccidwora, 

 cardini, and myersella) ; apical flanged process of gnathos 

 stout, the lobes fusing posteriorly; aedeagus smooth, 

 moderately stout; penis without cornuti, rarely with 

 a few sclerotized folds (zamacrella, myersella), otherwise 

 smooth; vinculum stout, rarely longer than broad 

 (fiskella). 



Female genitalia with signmn consisting of a narrow, 

 flanged or a small rounded, bluntly dentate plate; bursa 

 copulatrix, except for signiun and occasional minute 

 scobinations surrounding the signimi, smooth; ductus 

 bursae with a sclerotized ventral plate and a pair of 

 dorsal sclerotized plates at genital opening, otherwise 

 smooth; ductus seminalis from anterior end of bursa 

 copulatrix. 



Larvae predaceous on scale insects. 



The genus as here defined is structurally a somewhat 

 composite group but is, I think, a natural one, linking 

 in one direction with Rhagaea, Zophodia, and the cactus- 

 feeding phycitine genera and on another with two or 

 three as yet undefined genera of coccid feeders in the 

 Anerastiinae. Typical Laetilia (coccidivora to portori- 

 censis) are as much an erastiine as phycitine on male 

 genitalic characters (especially the general habitus of 

 the organs as well as the pecvdiar development of the 

 gnathos), but the tongue, while much reduced, is dis- 

 tinctly exposed as in most other short-tongued Phyci- 

 tinae. Three of the transition species (melanostathma, 

 amphimetra, and glomis) have the tongue rudimentary 

 and on this structure could go into the Anerastiinae, 

 were it not for their genitalia. The remaining transi- 

 tion species (zamacrella, myersella, ephestiella and fis- 

 kella), all nearctic species, are definitely phycitine on 

 all characters. On the sum of its characters LaetUlia 

 must be included in the Phycitinae. Upon one or more 

 structural differences it can be distinguished from any 

 other phycitine or anerastiine genus. 



474. Laetilia coccidivora (Comstock) 

 Figures 63, 502, 503, 997 

 Dakruma coccidivora Comstock, North Amer. Ent., vol. 1, p. 26, 

 1879; Rep. Comm. Agr. for 1879, p. 241, 1880.— Packard, 



U. S. Ent. Comm. Bull. 7, p. 54, 1881; U. S. Dep. Agr. Fifth 

 Rep. Ent. Comm., p. 413, 1890. 



Dakrum pallida Comstock, Rep. Comm. Agr. for 1879, p. 243, 

 1880. 



Laetilia coccidivora (Comstock) Ragonot, Ent. Amer., vol. 5, p. 

 116, 1889; Bull. Soc. Ent. France, p. viii, 1890.— Hulst, 

 Phycitidae of N. Amer., p. 182, 1890; U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 

 52, p. 431, 1903. — Hampson, in Ragonot, Monograph, pt. 2, 

 p. 117, 1901.— Hunter, Pratt, and Mitchell, U. S. Dept. 

 Agr. Bur. Ent. Bull. 113, pp. 24, 26, 1912.— Forbes, Cornell 

 Mem. 68, p.632, 1920.— McDunnough, Check list. No. 6328, 

 1939. 



Zophodia dilatifasciella Ragonot, N. Amer. Phycitidae, p. 13, 

 1887.— Hulst, Phycitidae of N. Amer., p. 174, 1890; U. S. 

 Nat. Mus. Bull. 52, p. 429, 1903. — Hampson, in Ragonot, 

 Monograph, pt. 2, p. 21, 1901. — Hunter, Pratt, and Mitchell, 

 U. S. Dep. Agr. Bur. Ent. Bull. 113, pp. 24, 26, 1912.— Mc- 

 Dunnough, Check list. No. 6309, 1939. (New synonymy.) 



Laetilia coccidivora hulstii Cockerell, Amer. Nat., vol. 31, p. 688, 

 1897.— Hulst, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 52, p. 431, 1903.— 

 McDunnough, Check list, No. 6328a, 1939. 



Laetilia hulstii (Cockerell) Dyar, Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, 

 vol. 6, p. 228, 1904. 



Palpi, face, head, and thorax brownish fuscous dusted 

 with white, the white more pronounced on undersurface 

 of second segment of labial palpus, on head, and on 

 collar. Forewing pale brownish fuscous heavily dusted 

 with white and with dark brown bordering the trans- 

 verse lines; the white dusting concentrated on the costal 

 half of wing, giving this area (especially between cell 

 and costa) a distinctly whitish appearance ; area between 

 cell and inner margin (and, beyond cell, between vein 

 3 and tornal margin) more or less suffused with pale 

 ocherous fuscous; costa for a short distance from base 

 blackish brown; in most specimens a rather obscure 

 transverse pale brownish basal band extending from 

 just below base of costa to inner margin near antemedial 

 line (only observable on unfaded specimens, sometimes 

 obsolete); from middle of basal band a short blackish 

 streak; antemedial line slanting outwardly from costa, 

 slightly angled or bent at fold, white and margined in- 

 wardly by a very narrow blackish brown band which 

 fades out towards costa, and outwardly margined by a 

 broad blackish brown band, especially contrasted to- 

 wards costa; subterminal line, faint, sinuate (inwardly 

 angled opposite cell and also, but very slightly, at fold), 

 inwardly margined by a narrow blackish brown band 

 and outwardly edged for a short distance from costa 

 by a broader, more or less triangular, blackish shading; 

 a small blackish dot or line at upper angle of cell and 

 another at lower outer angle, these occasionally fused 

 but normally well separated; along termen at the vein 

 ends a row of obscure brownish dots; cUia ashy gray. 

 Hind wing whitish with a somewhat smoky tint, a dark 

 shading along costa, a narrow dark line along termen 

 and some dark shading on the veins; cUia white with a 

 broad, slightly darker, basal band. Alar expanse, 

 10-20 mm. 



Male genitaha with gnathos terminating in a flanged 

 process with drooping lobes and a pair of short, strongly 

 sclerotized, divergent posterior horns; apex of imcus 

 truncate; penis simple, without cornuti or sclerotized 

 folds. 



