N. Banks.
Notes on Perlidæ.
Psyche 55:113-130, 1948.

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NOTES ON PEBLID^E1
BY NATHAN BANKS
Holliston, Mass.
The species of Perlesta are of moderate size ; they have three ocelli; the antennae have basal joints as long as broad, with many fine appressed hairs, each joint with one or more longer erect hairs (sense hairs). The femora have not only fine hairs below but also longer bristles scat- tered among the hairs (most noticeable on the front fem- ora). In the fore wings the anal cell at base of wings gives rise on the lower edge to a recurrent vein (the anal brace), the anal lobe is small, but, with the wings spread, readily seen, and the outer part of the anal brace crosses it; in the hind wings there are usually several cross-veins in the cubital area, but sometimes only one besides the end cross-vein and rarely only the end cross-vein ; there are no cross-veins in apical part of wings, except in costal area. The setae are rarely as long as the abdomen, with many stout hairs, and near tip of each joint one or two much longer erect hairs, often as long as the joint, the first few joints are hardly longer than broad, but soon the joints are extremely long. The last joint of maxillary palpi is usually hardly one-half of the third joint. The V-mark is two slightly diverging arms, quite broad throughout and reaching about half way to the front margin. The geno- type is Peria placida Hag.
Perlesta placida Hag. is common at and near Washing- ton, and is found generally from Canada to Louisiana, east of the Appalachian Mountains, except in New England. Normally it has a pale yellowish head, with a shining black spot covering the ocelli, but not extending to the front of head; the pronotum is brown to yellowish brown, some- times with a pale median stripe ; the thorax, abdomen and legs are yellowish; the wings are clear, the veins pale or 1 Published with a grant from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College.
113




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114 Psyche [Sept.
pale brown. Specimens with only a black bar connecting the hind ocelli were described by me as P. virginica; it is only a color form. Specimens without any black on head were named P. immaculata by Klapalek, this also is a color form.
All of these have the genital prongs in the male very slender, usually near each other and each curved out- ward toward tip ; the subgenital plate shows two lobes with truncate tips.
In 1862 Walsh described two species from Rock Island, Illinois ; he put each in a separate subgenus, since one had but one branch to radial sector and the other had two branches.
P. decipiens and P. brunneipennis usually have the black spot covering the ocelli, decipiens has clear wings, brunneipennis has infuscated wings. The genital prongs are very similar but quite different from P. placida, being much stouter and bent near the middle.
I consider that these two forms represent but one spe- cies, P. decipiens. It is the common form in the mid-west from Michigan to northern Texas. However there is a black species in this area, much less common, this is Per- lesta cinctipes Bks. The body and wings are almost wholly black, the edge of the clypeus usually whitish, the legs are pale beneath, the setae are pale, but each joint has a dark band at tip, the hind femora are pale at base and tip, and at tip of hind tibia. The legs of this species are shorter and much less slender than in the other species, particularly noticeable in the hind femora. The pale of
costal margin is reduced, each end of costal area being dark. In the female the subgenital lobes are large and the tips plainly rounded. In the male the genital prongs are very slender and longer than in placida, not, or scarcely outcurved at tips.
In 1914 I described another species, P. texana from Texas (Dallas, Kerrville, Victoria, Devil 's River ) . It is yellowish to rufous, the ocelli faintly connected by a dark V-mark; legs are pale below with a brown streak above, the hind tibiae dark except near tip; hind femur fairly slender ; sides of ocellar triangle longer than base. In the male the genital prongs are moderately slender, slightly outcurved toward tip, and their bases separated by a basal



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width.
In female the prongs are extremely broad at base, and with a short point, or slender peg at inner corner. Each lobe of the subgenital plate is rounded, but not as hairy as in mitida.
Besides the four species mentioned are two new species ; one from the streams on the higher slopes of the Smokies, and another the only form seen from New England. Perlesta placida nitida new race
Head and thorax above black, shining, on head there is a pale yellowish spot between eye and hind ocellus, and on margin over base of antennae the ridge is yellowish, some- times the spot by the eye is smaller, or almost gone, and the ridge only partly yellowish ; abdomen dull black above, below paler on venter, and on sternum dull yellowish, also on under side of legs, above on legs brown to black, tarsi black ; antennae dull yellowish on basal third of fourth, be- yond brown; setae yellowish on first five or six joints, then more
or less brown to blackish on basal half to three- fourths with the tip pale, further out thejoints are wholly black. Wings blackish, costal area pale yellowish, veins black.
Structure similar to placida; hind ocelli a little nearer to eyes than to each other, lateral boss transverse and placed as in placida; pronotum in female about twice as broad as long, in male not so broad, narrowed behind, with strong rugas on each side ; hind femora fully as slender as in placida, much more slender than in ciwctipes, the west- ern black species.
The male genital prongs are shorter, more straight than in placida and the apical third is the only narrow part ; in the female there is a very broad part for the basal three- fourths and at inner tip a short, slender apical part. The
subgenital plate has two lobes, each lobe strongly rounded on tip instead of the truncate lobes of other species ; these and the apical margin of the ninth segment have many long hairs, more than usual. The V-mark shows two pear- shaped bodies, with a long stem toward the front ocellus. Expanse 18 mm.
Two females and male from Holliston, Mass., 22, 30 June, 1 July. One male from Pittsfield, N. H., 5 July



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116 Psyche [Sept.
(Bks. coll.).
Also three from Connecticut; So. Meriden 17 June, 4 July (H. L. Johnson), and Mt. Carmel, 2 Aug. (Sommermann) (teneral), in the Agric. Exper. Station, New Haven.
Type M.C.Z. no. 27673.
Perlesta frisoni sp. nov.
This is the species occurring in the higher parts of the mountains of North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. It is pale yellowish, no dark spot over ocelli; the prono- turn yellowish, but with more or less definite brown marmo- rations on the sides, sometimes making a broad pale brown band each side ; below wholly pale, the legs and setae also pale, sometimes the hind tibise are slightly darkened at base above; wings wholly clear, none at all fumose. An- tennae pale on basal fifth or more, beyond dark. The head and pronotum are a little broader than placida, the ocellar triangle not as long as in placida, the hind ocelli plainly nearer to eyes than to each other, the lateral boss is trans- verse and about the diameter of an ocellus and below the ocellus.
The V-mark shows two strongly diverging arms, at up- per end pointed, at tip very broad, the inner edge concave. The pronotum in front is not nearly twice as broad as long, and plainly narrowed behind ; the anterior angles are quite sharp, and the front margin more strongly bowed than in placida.
The genital prongs of the male are broad at base and taper gradually on both sides to the fairly sharp tip. In the female the base of each prong is much broader, the in- ner tip prolonged into a short, slender point, sometimes very slender like a peg.
In the female the subgenital plate is transverse and truncate, sometimes a median notch, the apical plates (be- tween bases of setae) are more prominent, and more sharply pointed than placida, not so hairy as in nitida. Many specimens from the Smoky Mts., mostly on the Tennessee side in early September, 1930 (Darlington, Car- penter, Banks).
Expanse 19-24 mm.
Type M.C.Z. no. 27662.




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2. NEOPHASGANOPHOBA AND HABRISIOLA
Failing to examine the genital prongs of the several species proposed in this genus N, & C. lumped all under Peria capihta Pictet, the type of the genus. I did not find the type specimen of the species in "Europe in 1912, and Bicker does not mention seeing it. Pictet says he had a male; if it were a Neophasganopfiora, he could hardly help seeing and referring to the genital prongs, so much larger than in other Perlidas. His specimen might well be a species much like, but paler than media. Media is largely black on the head; this similar form, smaller and paler than media has a head largely yellowish with a black spot over the ocellar area and a median triangular black mark on the lower face, exactly as Pictet figures capitatar. This form belongs to Peh (or Togoperia) and the male has only small genital prongs and often in dried specimens are depressed in the cavity, so as scarcely no- ticeable. Therefore I replace Neophasganophora of Needham with Earrisiola, and Peria flavescens Walsh as genotype. Harrisiola is readily separable, in the male from M a or Togoperla by the elongate genital prongs, but both sexes are also separated by the course of the occi- pital line ; in Harrisiola the ends of the occipital line bend forward close to the outer edge of the lateral bosses; in Perla (Togoperia) the line passes well above, the lateral boss toward the eye,
In the synoptic table of the species below I have used color, for I find that where we have a number of specimens and from various localities, the color of setae, of hind fe- mora, and the type of head marking is the same through- out, and that they follow the shape of the male genital prongs, and therefore when specimens, tho few, show dif- ferences in these points I treat them as distinct species. The figure of the genital prong given by Klapalek is not like that of the Loudonville specimens I sent him; and the figures of Needham and Claassen (Plate 19, figures 1 and 2) are not at all the common fiavescens but probably of H. americana, and the female (fig. 3) also fits this species. 1. Hind femora mostly pale, "with a
across near base ; several joints
broad black band
near base of setse




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Psyche
[ Sept.
pale ; apical part of genital prongs divided by a con- striction, the outer part slender toward tip ; the fifth dorsal segment projecting in a fairly broad lobe. annulipes.
Hind femora without a band near base, but often an elongate spot not reaching across .......................................... 2. 2. Hind femora (and others) with upper side black and lower edge with a dark line, sometimes incomplete; setae wholly black except extreme base of first seg- ment; produced part of fifth dorsal segment broad behind, lightly rounded ; last section of genital prongs very long and slender ...................................................... 3. Hind femora (and others) with upper side partly or wholly dark, lower without dark; tip of produced part of fifth dorsal segment not so broad; last sec- tion of genital prongs often shorter ................................. 5. 3. Base of fore wings plainly yellowish, wings pallid; hind corners of head yellow: femora with dark streak above and below; fast section of genital prongs scarcely, if at all, scabrous above ..................... flavescens. Base of fore wings not plainly yellowish, but more or less darkened ............................................................................................. 4. 4. Base of fore wings plainly black, and general surface and veins darkened ; head black except a pale dot on each boss and on bases of V-mark; femora almost wholly black, a pale streak on side toward end; api- cal part of prong scabrous and as long as in flaves- cens; setae black ............................................................... nigrescens. Base of wings not so dark, head with hind corners yel- lowish as in flavescens; wing's and veins almost as dark as in americana; at least basal half of setae pale yellowish; apical part of prongs quite short abbreviat a.
5. Apical part of prongs almost as long as in flavescens and not scabrous above; setae almost wholly pale, scarcely any dark on abdomen; wings an even . dull . yellowish brown, no pale base ....................................... trtstw. Apical part of prongs much shorter, often scabrous above, setae with only a few joints toward base pale ........................................................................................................................ 6.



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6. Last part of prongs about three times as long as broad, not scabrous, just before tip with a few distinct spicules or short spines; setas entirely black; pro- meso- and metanotum with an elongate pale spot, tips of femora broadly black across ............... modesta. Last section of prongs scarcely more than twice as long as broad, tip more pointed; no pale marks on thorax -
-
above ...................................... ........................................... ................................. 7. 7. Preapical part of prongs but little longer than apical part ................................................................................................... klapaleki. Preapical part of prongs fully twice as long as the api- cal part ....................................................................................... awericawa. Harrisiola flavescens Walsh
This species, easily recognized by the yellowish base to fore wings, is typically from Illinois, but the eastern mar- ginipes Provancher is the same species, and occurs from southern Canada down to Washington, D. C. The eastern forms are sometimes a little darker, but the prongs are like those of aWalsh paratype at the M.C.Z. Perla illus- tris Bks. and P. innota are synonyms of marginipes. Paratype M.C.Z. no. 10127.
Harrisiola nigrescens sp. nov.
Head and thorax both above and below largely black, with only bosses and a spot on each arm of the V-mark pale, under side of head with a few pale spots, hind part of metasternum pale, abdomen mostly rufous, last five seg- ments with a black apical mark over the posterior part, some on dorsum but more on sides and venter, not nearly reaching middle of venter; the sixth and seventh ventral segments show a median dark area, not as prominent as in flavesce~s; setae jet black, palpi black, antennae mostly black, but the basal fourth more or less pale; wings with very distinct dark veins, basal costal area before first cross-vein black, no sign of the yellowish base of flaves- cens; area of anal cell, some in front and beyond also black. Legs mostly black, femora with an elongate pale streak on outer half before tip, tibiae more brown, but tarsi black.




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120 Psyche
[ Sept.
The fifth segment of male is prolonged about as in fla- vescens, but not such a broad tip; the last section of the genital prongs is long, but not quite as long as fiavescens, and without any little spinules ; last section longer than in tristis.
Length of body, 12 mm. ; of fore wing 13 mm. Three males from Antrim Co., Mich., 6 July (Dreis- bach) .
Type M.C.Z. no. 27719.
. Harrisiola annulipes Hag.
The head has a broad black mark from occipital line to front margin, broken by pale between each hind ocellus and the lateral boss and the arms of the V-mark are rather broadly pale. The femora have a broad band across basal half and a narrow band at tip, the upper and lower edges between are pale. The sets are pale on several basal joints.
The genital prongs are long, the apical section swollen at base and then slightly constricted beyond from where it tapers to the pointed tip, from above this part is seen to be compressed, the preapical part has fairly large spi- nules above. In the female the ventral plate is rather strongly rounded, on each side is a rounded dark spot and the outer half of the marginal part is dark, the preceding segment has a dark spot in the middle.
It is not uncommon in the vicinity of Washington, D. C. Also occurs at Easton, Pa., and in Montgomery Co., Pa. Type M.C.Z. no. 249.
Harrisiola tristis Hag.
This was based on two males from Trenton Falls, New York.
I have seen no other males like them.
The femora
are dark along upper edge as in margimpes, but the lower edge pale; the setae are almost entirely pale; there is black between the hind ocelli and bosses. It is a small
species, and a female from the Delaware Water Gap is of the same size and may belong to it, with the femora dark above and pale below and pale sets. The last section of the genital prongs has the upper edge more strongly



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curved than in flavescens, and, from side, is broader in the middle. The head has a little more pale in front than flavescens, venter pale, antennae pale for some distance. The prongs are long, the apical part very long and much curved down, and not scabrous above.
Type M.C.Z. no. 245.
Harrisiola americana Bks.
This has the head black behind occipital line, pale each side between hind ocellus and boss, and pale over the V- mark. The genital prongs show a rather short apical part, and long basal part with erect hairs and numerous spicules above, the two parts separated by a strong con- striction. The hind femora are partly or wholly dark on upper edge, the lower edge pale; set= mostly dark, but a few joints at base pale.
Type M.C.Z. no 11324.
Harrisiola klapaleki sp. nov.
This is very similar to americana, but differs in the much shorter preapical part of the genital prongs. The
hind femora have more black on basal part above ; but the lower margin is dark only near base.
The female has the ninth segment below black each side, pale in middle, the subgenital plate less convex (not lobed as in americana), and black or dark, except for the pale apical depression.
From Loudonville, Ohio, 6 July (Osburn). Type M.C.Z. no 27717.
Harrisiola modesta sp. nov.
Head largely yellow, ocellar area black, and a broad dark band below the V-mark. The pronotum has a pale median streak, not reaching front and broader behind, an irregular pale spot on middle of meso- and metanotum. Tip of femora broadly black across; s'etse entirely black; last ventral segment (9) has a dark spot each side near outer margin ; wings mostly blackish.
Last section of genital prongs tnuch shorter than in flavescens, about three times as long as broad (from side)



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not, or scarcely broadened in middle, nearly cylindric, not scabrous above, but tip of preapical part with a few spinules.
From Marietta, Ohio, 7 June (Holden).
Type M.C.Z. no. 27718.
Harrisiola abbreviata sp. nov.
Head marked much as in flavescens, the hind corners yellow; femora with a blackstreak above near base and another near tip, lower edge narrowly black, hind tibia almost wholly pale; wings and veins darkened, almost as much as in americana, no flavescent base; venter with dark side and two dark spots in the middle; antennae dark; setae with at least basal half pale Genital prongs with the apical part much shorter than in flavescens, and not scabrous above, but preapical part has a few spinules near tip above.
A little smaller than flavescem.
Taken near Grand Gorge in the Catskill Mts., N. Y., in the latter part of June 1889 (Bks). -
Type M.C.Z. no. 27720.
Pictetia bimaculata sp. nov.
Brown marked with pale yellowish, ocelli joined by fairly broad, almost black lines, a pale yellowish triangle within, laterally, each side of the front ocellus the dark is extended nearly to the margin of head.
Most of the mid-
dle of face is a paler brown as in figure, pale yellow on bosses and over and between the V-mark. Head between eyes convex and here broader than long, behind eyes the sides curve inward; ocelli in triangle about one and one- third times as broad as long, hind ocelli scarcely as near to eyes as to each other; palpi brown, maxillary palpi very slender, third and fourth joints about equally long and each about as long as an eye. Antennae black, fourth and fifth joints each broader than long, clothed with short, pale hair and near end of each joint the very short, erect sense hair.




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Pronotum not quite twice as broad in front as long, anterior side plainly convex, anterior corners projecting a little, behind much narrower than in front, with a broad, pale median stripe, and each side including mar- gin, dark brown; inner two-thirds of each side with short, irregular ridges; rest of thorax black above, brown be- low; legs rather evenly pale brownish, tarsi black ; abdo- men dull brown above and below, ninth ventrite with a rounded, swollen black spot each side; ventral plate broad, and broadly rounded.
Wings faintly tinted, veins not very dark, anal cell about twice as long above as broad at tip; anal brace reaches from near base of cell across anal area, but no anal lobe here ; cubito-anal cross-vein plainly its length beyond cell, not darkened; subcosta ends some distance before cord, onlv a few costal cross-veins, and one be- yond cord; radial sector forks once not far bevond cord; in hind wings no extra cubital cross-veins ; abdomen fully as long as head and thorax.
Length of bodv 12 mm. ; of fore wing 12 mm. From Diqbv, Nova Scotia, 28 May 1905 (Russell). Type M.C.Z. no. 27723.
Atoperla consors sp. nov.
Head dark brown; only the antenna1 ridge opposite an-