OCR Text |
Show 306 LORD WALSINGHAM ON [Feb. 15, Head and palpi whitish, the latter having the tuft on the second joint about the same length as the apical joint. Antennas annulated with brown and whitish. Fore wings whitish, dusted with brownish scales, with a brown triangular basal fascia tending obliquely outward from the costa, where it is very wide, and reaches the base of the wing to beyond the first third of the dorsal margin, where it is very narrow. Beyond this, after a conspicuous oblique fascia of the pale groundcolour, is a large brown V-shaped blotch enclosing a whitish triangular costal spot occupying about the middle of the costa ; the apical margin is somewhat narrowly shaded with brown ; and the whitish cilia are touched with brown, especially towards the anal angle. Hind wings cinereous, the fringes scarcely paler. Expanse 16 millim. May 19, near San Francisco; June 16-22, Lake county; July 15, Shasta county, California. A single specimen of what I suppose to be a variety of this species occurred on the coast towards the north of California in June 1872. In it the whitish ground-colour of the fore wings is entirely suffused with brown, and the markings, although in exactly the same position as in the normal form, are almost obscured. The species is much larger than Plutella hufnagelii, Zell., and differs in its markings, but is evidently allied to it. Genus CEROSTOMA (Latreille). The only species, among those described by American authors, which has been placed in this genus up to the present time is Cerostoma brassicella (Fitch), which is the well-known cosmopolitan Plutella cruciferarum (Zell.), as pointed out by Mr. Stainton (Tin. N. Amer. p. 90), also subsequently by Prof. Zeller (Verh. z.-b. Ges. Wien, 1873, p. 33), and by Mr. Chambers. Mr. Chambers, in his Index to the Tiueina of the United States and Canada (Bull. U.S. Geog. & Geol. Surv. vol. iv. no. 1, p. 134), omits to notice that Mr. Walker (Cat. Lep. Het. B. M . xxviii. p. 546) records the occurrence in Hudson's Bay of Cerostoma xylostella (Linn.) {den-tella, Fabr., Staud. and Wocke Cat. 1652). I have searched for the specimen in the British Museum, and am unable to find it. It is not improbable that one of the allied species, hereinafter described, may have been under Mr. Walker's notice. There is scarcely sufficient evidence, in the absence of the specimen referred to, to establish the occurrence of Cerostoma xylostella (Linn.) in America. Among the numerous Tineidae which I have received from the Eastern States the genus Cerostoma has been conspicuously absent, affording an additional illustration of the divergence of their Lepi-dopterous fauna from those of California and Oregon. CEROSTOMA INSTABILELLA, Mann. I am indebted to Mr. Stainton for a specimen of this species, which I have carefully compared with nine examples taken on Mount Shasta, |