New Species and Records of Diatraea Guild. from Northern Venezuela (Lepid., Pyral.)

Records are given of the localities (with altitudes) and habitats of 11 species of Diatraea Guild., all reared from known food-plants in northern Venezuela. The larvae of several of these moths are important pests of sugar-cane and maize. Among the eight previously described forms, D. busckella rosa Heinr. is here raised to specific rank, and D. busckella Dyar & Heinr. is treated as a polytypic species, in which typical subsp. busckella has three well-defined forms, two of them, viz., f. falconensis nov. and f. setariaeoides nov., being described, while others are indicated ; the subsp. setariae nov. is also described. The diagnostic characters of D. rosa and D. busckella are discussed and their genitalia are illustrated. The various subspecies and forms of D. busckella are discussed in relation to each other and to D. rosa, these two species being considered as together comprising a supraspecies. Hybrids have been reared in the laboratory among certain of the components.

Three new species, D. andina, D. pittieri and D. silvicola, are described and illustrated, all from northern Venezuela.