12 Geo. 5 Provincial Museum Reporp. M 35 



FAMILY PTEROPHORIDAE. 

 Genus TRICHOPTILUS Walsingham. 



Trichoptilits Walsingham, I'teroph. Cal., Ore., 02, J8S0. Characters: Forehead without tuft; 

 ocelli obsolete. Labial palpi moderate, ascending. Fore wings cleft from before middle, both 

 lobes slender, tapering, without anal angle. 



1. Trichoptilus pygm^eus Walsingham, Pter. Cal., Ore., 64, 1880. A very small species 

 measuring about 10 mm. in expanse. Fore wings very pale fawn, barred with white on both 

 lobes. 



Two specimens taken at Wellington, B.C. (Bryant), on 30-VI.-03 and 11-VII.-03 respectively. 

 One specimen is without head or body and the other is simply pinned. There is no record of any 

 other specimens having been taken since. An exceedingly rare species. The type series included 

 three specimens taken near Millville, Cal., on July 11th, 1871. Two of them are in the British 

 Museum, the remaining one being in the Fernald collection at Amherst, Mass. One other specimen 

 is in the U.S. National Museum. I believe that these six specimens are all that are known. 



Genus PTEROPHORUS Geoffroy. 



Pterophorus Geoffroy, Hist. Nat. Ins., II., page 90, 1702. 



Oxyptihis Zeller, Isis X., page 765, 3S41. 



Characters: Forehead smooth without tuft; ocelli obsolete. Labial palpi moderate, 

 oblique; second joint with a ventral apical tuft in one British Columbian species; third joint 

 moderate. Tibiae thickened with scales at base of spurs. Primaries bifid, cleft from about 

 middle. Secondaries trifid, third feather with a well-developed tuft of black scales in the fringes 

 of the inner margin. 



1. Pteeophorus tenuidactylus Fitch. Trans. N.T. Agr. Soc, XIV., 848, 1854. Primaries 

 dark brown with a coppery tinge, with a fine transverse white line across outer half of both lobes. 

 First lobe with a broader stripe basad of this; second lobe with this stripe reduced to a small 

 white patch. Palpi white with lateral brown stripes. Thorax white behind. Abdomen brown 

 with diverging pairs of white stripes on the third segment. Fourth segment entirely brown 

 above; fifth mostly white. Beneath the abdomen is more heavily marked with white. Expanse, 

 13-17 mm. , 



Dyar in his "Kootenai List" records two specimens of this species as having been bred 

 from the thimble-berry (Rubus nutlcanus). Specimens sent to me by Mr. J. W. Cockle from 

 Kaslo as tenuidactylus turn out to be Pterophorus delawaricus Zell. The only authentic specimen 

 that I have seen is a unique taken by Mr. G. O. Day at Quamichan Lake, near Duncan, on July 

 14th, 1907. Dr. Lindsey tells me that the species is widely distributed and is quite common in 

 Borne localities. 



2. Pterophorus ningoris Walsingham, Pter. Cal., Ore., 20, 1S80. Fore wings dull brown 

 with a greyish cast caused by the presence of white and fuscous scales. Both lobes crossed 

 by two white lines; the outer one slender, the inner one broad. The lobes are somewhat narrower 

 than in our other two species of this genus. Secondaries brown; third lobe paler, white beyond 

 middle, with large tuft of blackish scales in fringes at outer third. Palpi rather long and slender, 

 oblique, dark brown, with both joints white-tipped. First spurs attached about three-fifths from 

 base of tibia and reaching its tip. Expanse, 18-20 mm. 



Dyar records it from Kaslo and states that the larva? were found feeding on a herbaceous 

 plant with milky juice, Hieracium albiflorum. In our 1906 B.C. Check-list it is also recorded 

 from Wellington, but the specimens labelled ningoris in the Bryant collection and from which the 

 record was taken all prove upon examination to be delaicaricua. Mr. Day took one female 

 specimen at Cowichan Lake on June 18th, 1913. 



3. Pterophorus delawaricus Zeller, Verh z-b Ges. Wien., XXIII., 320, 1873. Fore wings 

 bright golden-brown, with both lobes crossed by two inwardly oblique white stripes; the outer 

 one slender, the inner one broader. Palpi brown at the sides; the vestiture of the second joint 

 produced into a poiut below, which almost reaches tip of third. Abdomen with diverging white 

 dashes above. Expanse, 18-20 mm. 



■ This species is far more common than the other two. 1 have it from Victoria (Blackmore) ; 

 Fitzgerald (Carter) ; Coldstream (Blackmore) ; Wellington (Bryant); Fraser Mills (Marmont) ; 

 Kaslo (Cockle) ; and Bossland (Danby) ; the dates ranging from June 10th to July 26th. 



