The genus Bucculatrix in America north of Mexico (Microlepidoptera)

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Bucculatrix is one of the most easily recognized genera of Microlepidoptera. About 200 species are now known, occurring in all continents except New Zealand, with about three-fourths of the species in the northern hemisphere. About one-half are within the area of this monograph. In number of species, the genus is best represented in warmer regions, particularly in arid regions, where any collection is likely to contain representatives of it, some of them probably undescribed. A total of 99 North American species are included in the genus. Of the 54 species listed in McDunnough's Check List of the Lepidoptera of Canada and the United States of America, Part II, Microlepidoptera (1939), eight (capitialbella Chambers, albicapitella Chambers, rileyi Frey & Boll, crescentella Braun, chrysothamni Braun, tetrella Braun, althaeae Busck, pertenuis Braun ) are reduced to synonymy. Bucculatrix subnitens Walsingham, previously known only from Mexico, is here recorded from Arizona. Bucculatrix gossypiella Morrill, of Mexico, is included because of the probability of its introduction in the Southwest. Bucculatrix needhami Braun was recently (1956) described. Fifty species are described as new. Examples of all of the species here treated have been examined, with the exception of niveella Chambers and immaculatella Chambers of which no types are in existence; these latter two species are assigned to their probable positions. A total of over 2500 specimens has been examined in the study of the genus. Keys to the species based on coloration and markings and on male and female genitalia are included here, as well as descriptions of each of the 99 species known in North America.

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ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology: Invertebrates