304 



captured specimen and named Menesta tortricella. The only other spe- 

 cies of this genus of which there is any record is a captured unique, 

 obtained by Lord Walsingham from Texas, and described in his lord- 

 ship's notes on North American Tineidce, in the Proceedings of the Lon- 

 don Zoological Society for 1881. This is a small species with dull 

 shaded red fore wings, each of which is ornamented with a minute dis- 

 coidal ocellus. The hind wings are dark gray.* In all his collecting, 

 personally and by his assistants, Mr. V. T. Chambers, whose studies of 

 American Tineidse were so extensive, seems never to have met with a 

 species that he could satisfactorily relegate to this genus. 



The larval habits of neither of the described species have been ob- 

 served, but perhaps those of the one which 1 now propose to character- 

 ize may indicate some of their peculiarities. 



Menesta melanella n. sp. 



Head and thorax above dusky black, face smooth, scales shining-white with golden 

 and iridescent reflections; labial palpi rather short, slender, diverging, slightly 

 curved, second joint scarcely thickened, smooth, tapering to the juncture with the 

 very slender sharply pointed apical joint, inner side white, outer ocherous, dusky at 

 base, maxillary palpi very small, tongue broad, white at base ; antennae brownish- 

 black, with purplish and steely reflections, rough scaled under the lens, but scarcely 

 ciliate, about two-thirds the length of the wings. 



Fore wings shining bluish or brownish black, somewhat iridescent, with acute,, 

 milk-white, triangular patch on costa midway between base and apex, extending 

 nearly half across the wing, a few white scales near the base; cilia on outer margin 

 pure white, ou inner angle dingy black. 



Hiud wings very dark brown, with rather broad white marginal streak on costal 

 edge, extending from near the base beyond the middle and a patch of white in the 

 cilia near the outer angle, also a few white hairs near the inner angle. Under sur- 

 face of both fore and hind wings fuscous with leaden reflections, the white costal 

 triangle nearly as well defined beneath as above. 



Abdomen above, iridescent, shining black. Thorax beneath and broad ventral 

 abdominal band, white with metallic luster. Front legs white, middle pair white,, 

 on femora and tibia?, wit'i tarsi, dusky, indistinctly annulate with white; hind lega 

 dusky and leaden gray, with broad band of white encircling tibiae ; terminal joint 

 whitish at base, shading to dark gray at tip ; upper spurs long, white ; lower spurs 

 ocherous. All the white on the under surface has, in certain lights, deep golden and 

 opalescent tints, with a somewhat more stable ocherous shade at the joints. All the 

 legs are coarsely scaled and hairy. The alar expanse is from 10 to 12 mm . 



This species is pretty and characteristic in its perfect form and inter- 

 esting in its larval habits and transformations. The larva appears late 

 in summer, ou the post oaks (Q.obtusiloba) and requires nearly a mouth 

 to attain maturity. It is at first a miner, but later — probably after first 

 molt — feeds externally on the under surface of the leaf, skeletonizing a 

 lar^e space on one side of the midrib, protecting itself above under a 

 web which is dense in the center and becomes gradually attenuate to- 

 wards the edges, from under which the frass is ejected. When dis- 



* I have since noticed that Lord Walsiugham has removed this species from Alenesta 

 and placed it in the Tricotaphe section of Gelechia. He also states that it is a synonym 

 of Chambers' Gelechia refuseUa. — M. E. M. 



