THE POTATO TUBER MOTH, 



13 



Of the size of the smallest [species] terella or of the largest [species] senectella. Head 

 whitish, mixed with a little ocherous, brighter on the dorsum. Ocelli I can not per- 

 ceive. Antennae gray, lighter on the undersides, with well-defined joints. Palpi 

 whitish, second joint flattened, with noticeably channeled bristles, and having a gray 

 efflorescence on the outer sides near the end. Third joint more than half as long as 

 the second, awl-shaped, finelypointed, with a brown spot between the base and middle. 

 The four front legs light gray, the outsides dusted with brown, tarsi brown, the joints 



**.VA*U/»(I((,'J. 



• 



Fig. 10. — The potato tuber moth {Phthorimaea operculcUa). Greatly enlarged. (Original.) 



with whitish ends. The hind legs pale yellow, the tibiae with small light-colored 

 hairs, and the tarsi brownish at the joints. Abdomen yellowish dust-gray, grayish- 

 white beneath, the last joint, in the male, as long as one-third of the abdomen, bright 

 ocher yellow. Two elliptical, somewhat hollowed disks lying with their hollows 

 upon one another. The lower projects somewhat from beneath the upper and is 

 clothed on the upper side with a rich covering of somewhat loose-lying hairs, appressed 

 above and projecting over the margin. On both sides of the base of the upper disk 

 stands an outwardly crumpled brush of hair reaching nearly or quite to the end. In 



the female the anal joint is of 

 the usual length, and is of the 

 form of a truncated cone, the 

 ovipositor slightly projecting. 



FiQ. 11.— The potato tuber moth: Natural position at rest. 

 Much enlarged. (Original.) 



Fore-wings 2^ to 2J- '^^ in 

 length, smaller in the male 

 than in the female, light gray, 

 dusted yellowish gray, particu- 

 larly toward the base, in the 

 middle pure ocherous. Along 

 the middle fold lies a longi- 

 tudinal blackish streak, in- 

 closed at both ends with whitish dashes. Above this lie two small blackish dots, 

 the lower nearer the baae than the upper. On the cross-vein is a larger dot, nearly 

 ringed aV>out with light gray. At the rear margin is an indistinct row of blackish, 

 somewhat larger dots. Fringes light gray, inwardly dusted with darker, and espe- 

 cially near the tip. 



Hind wing.H hardly a.4 broad a.s the for(!-wiiigH and with undfirturiuHl hind fringe, 

 bright gray. Fringe longer than the width of the wing, with a yellowish sheen toward 

 the bawj. The entire underside uniform gray. 



