AMERICAN MOTHS OF THE SUBFAMILY PHYCITINAE 



265 



Uncus bifurcate. Transtilla absent. Harpe simple 

 except for short, bluntly rounded clasper; slender; sao- 

 culus reduced; costa not appreciably sclerotized; apex 

 rounded. AneUus a narrow curved band with long 

 lateral lobes and long, slender, sclerotized lat- 

 eral attachments to tegumen. Aedeagus long, stout, 

 partially sclerotized; penis armed with a single, stout 

 cornutus. Vinculum elongate, narrowing abruptly be- 

 yond base. 



Female genitalia without signum; bursa copulatrix 

 with some fine sclerotized wrinklings and a small lobe of 

 thickened membrane near ductus bursae ; ductus bursae 

 much shorter than bursa, expanding abruptly to en- 

 larged genital opening; a pair of weakly sclerotized 

 plates on membrane behind genital opening; ductus and 

 genital opening otherwise simple ; ductus seminalis from 

 bursa near thickened lobe. 



A distinct genus of uncertain affinities, with male gen- 

 italia unlike anything else in group II. Contains but 

 one described species. 



547. Metephestia simplicula (Zeller) 

 Figures 100, 563, 1056 



Ephestia simplicula Zeller, Horae Soc. Ent. Rossicae, vol. 16, p. 

 246, 1881. 



Metephestia simplicula (Zeller) Hampson, in Ragonot, Mono- 

 graph, pt. 2, p. 87, 1901. 



Forewing unicolorous light gi'ay brown to dark gray 

 (reared examples much darker than flown specimens); 

 transverse lines obsolete ; in fresh specimens faint traces 

 of dark terminal and discal dots, otherwise unmarked. 

 Hind wing semihyaline white with a faint ocherous tint 

 towards apex and termen. Alar expanse, 11-16 mm. 



Genitalia as given for the genus; apex of harpe nar- 

 rowly rounded; vinculum longitudinally grooved and 

 with notched apex. 



Type locality: Honda, Colombia (type in BM). 



Food plants: Indigojera tinctoria and /. verhasijo- 

 lium. 



Distribution: United States: Florida, Key West 

 (Mar., Apr.). Puerto Rico: Catano (Apr., July), 

 Coamo Springs (Apr.), Dovado (May), Rio Piedras 

 (Aug.), San Germdn (Apr.); Puerto Real (Vieques Isl., 

 Apr.). Colombia: Honda (Apr.). Also reported by 

 Hampson from St. Vincent Isl., British West Indies. 



The above food-plant records are from a scries of 

 moths reared by the Special Survey of the Division of 

 Foreign Plant Quarantine of the U. S. Bureau of Ento- 

 mology and Plant Quarantine from larvae webbing the 

 leaves of Indigqfera. This is the first record we have of 

 the species from the United States or of its host plant. 



Genera 156-159: Selga to Rioja 



[Venational division A. Forewing with 11 veins; 4 and 5 stalked. 

 Hind wing with 2 from before lower outer angle of cell; 3 and 5 

 stalked or connate (Entmemacornis) ; discocellular vein curved. 

 Male genitalia with apical process of gnathos bifid; transtilla 

 complete (except in Selga). Labial palpi oblique (Selga) or 

 upturned.] 



156. Selga, new genus 



Type of genus: Heterographis arizonella Hulst. 



Tongue well developed. Antenna pubescent; shaft 

 of male simple. Labial palpus oblique, reaching height 

 of vertex ; slender ; third segment nearly as long as second , 

 apex bluntly pointed. Maxillary palpus minute, fili- 

 form. Forewing smooth; 11 veins; vein 2 from before 

 but near lower, outer angle of cell; 3 from the angle; 4 

 and 5 shortly stalked (for less than half their lengths), 

 stalk separated at base from 3; 6 from below upper angle 

 of cell, straight; 8 and 9 stalked; 10 from the cell, sepa- 

 rate and divei-gent from the stalk of 8-9; male with a 

 narrow costal fold, extending for over one-fourth of costa 

 from base. Hind wing with vein 2 from before lower 

 outer angle of cell; 3 and 5 from the angle, shortly 

 stalked (for less than half their lengths) ; 7 and 8 strongly 

 anastomosed for most of their lengths beyond cell; cell 

 one-half the length of wing; discocellular vein curved. 

 Eighth abdominal segment of male simple. 



Male genitalia with apical process of gnathos U- 

 shaped (consisting of a pair of widely spaced, short, 

 blunt arms). Uncus stout, broadly rounded. Trans- 

 tilla incomplete. Harpe simple, apex roimded; costa 

 sclerotized throughout and projecting slightly at apex. 

 AneUus a broad, curved plate. Aedeagus short, stout; 

 penis with sclerotized wrinkhngs, otherwise unarmed. 

 Vinculum stout, rather short (broader than long); 

 terminal margin broadly rounded. 



Female genitalia with bui-sa copulatrix elongate, 

 minutely scobinate; signum present, consisting of a 

 small coarsely and bluntly spined plate. Ductus bursae 

 unsclerotized, shorter than bursa; with a pair of narrow 

 elongate dorsal plates and minute scobinations at genital 

 opening, otherwise simple. Ductus seminalis from 

 bursa about half-way between signum and junction of 

 ductus bursae. 



A distinct genus easily distinguished on male genitalia 

 from anything else in group II with 1 1 veins in forewing. 

 Its male genitalia are strikingly similar to those of 

 Myelopsis coniella in group I to which it apparently is 

 closely related. It contains one North American 

 species. 



548. Selga arizonella (Hulst), new combination 

 Figures 564, 1057 



Heterographis arizonella Hulst, Journ. New York Ent. Soc, vol. 

 8, p. 222, 1900.— McDunnough, Check list. No. 6340, 1939. 



Forewing white, finely and evenly peppered with 

 blackish scales giving the wing a pale ashy gray color; 

 antemedial line white, slightly notched in cell and more 

 deeply notched at lower fold, outwardly margined by a 

 blackish line and inwardly margined by a broader 

 blackish shade; subterminal line parallel with and 

 rather near to terminal margin, indented slightly at vein 

 6 and lower fold, white bordered inwardly and out- 

 wardly by blackish lines; blackish discal dots at end of 

 cell small, more or less confluent, in more strongly 

 marked specimens a fine blackish line extends from 

 them to middle of inner margin; a row of small blackish 



