Rupela

Abstract: This paper is based upon specimens of pyralidid moths in the United States National Museum, the British Museum, the American iSIuseum of Natural History, and the Cornell University collection. I am indebted to these institutions for the loan of specimens, to Dr. W. T. M. Forbes for the specimens collected by him in the Giiianas, to Dr. H. E. Box for the gift of reared specimens from British Guiana and St. Lucia, and especially to W. H. T. Tams for giving me the correct application of the Walker and Zeller jiames. He made preparations of the genitalia of the Walker and Zeller types in the British Museum, compared them with drawings and slides that we submitted, and sent me photographs of the type slides and helpful notes on the types. I am obliged to him also for the loan of the British Museum material. Studies of the genitalia in this genus brouglit surprising results. What we thought were but two or three white species proved to be at least 18 species, sharply defined on characters of the male and female genitalia, but so alike in color and so variable in size and in Avhat ordinarily are specific differences in venation that they could not be separated by external characters. Needless to say, the specimens in the various collections were badly mixed, and no reli-