2 BULLETIK 226, XI. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 
injurious to verbena and sent specimens to Riley for identification, 
while Miss M. E. Murtfeldt found the insect injuring Antirrhinum at 
Kirkwood, Mo. 
The species was later observed and collected by entomologists in 
various sections of the country, and notices to that effect appear 
scattered through our literature. 
NAME AND SYNONYMY. 
Popularly this moth has only one name, the " verbena bud moth/' 
given it by Mrs. Mary Treat in 1869 from the plant upon which it was 
found feeding. Scientifically, however, it has in its brief history 
been known by several names and has been shifted from one genus to 
another. Both Fernald and Walsingham have listed the species under 
the genus Penthina. Later it has been listed by H. G. Dyar and J. B. 
Smith under the genus Olethreutes. As it now stands we have the 
following synonymy: 
Olethreutes hebesana Walk., Dyar, 1902. 
Sciaphila hebesana Walk., 1863. 
Carpocapsa inexpertana Walk., 1863. 
Sericoris fcedana Clem., 1865. 
Penthina fuller ea Riley, 1868. 
Penthina hebesana Wlsm., 1879. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Apparently the verbena bud moth is distributed locally at least 
through the eastern part of the United States. It is evidently a 
native American species and has been collected and 
in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, 
Virginia, Texas, Kansas, Indiana, and California, and 
from Canada. 
FOOD PLANTS. 
So far as known this species has confined its injuries solely to 
flowering plants. It has been reared from and found injurious on 
the following food plants: Tiger flower (Tigridia pavonia), snap- 
dragon (Antirrhinum spp.), flag (Iris spp.), hedge nettle (Stacliys 
palustris), mullein (Verhascum tJiapsus), verbena (Verbena spp.), 
closed gentian (Gentiana andrewsii), false foxglove (Basy stoma flam). 
According to the records in the Bureau of Entomology it has 'several 
times been reared from the stems of Tigridia pavonia and was in- 
jurious to verbenas on the Department of Agriculture grounds in 
Washington, where it fed upon the flower heads, webbing a number 
of seed capsules together to feed upon the young and undeveloped 
seeds. The heads of verbena are probably not its natural habitat, 
since it is necessary to web them together. Among other food plants 
in the records of the Bureau of Entomology are the closed gentian 
(Gentiana andrewsii) and false foxglove (Dasystoma flava). It has 
been found to feed in the dry seed pods of both these species, which 
may be included among its wild food plants. 
