Elachista synopla Braun 1948

Elachista synopla new species (Fig. 63.)
1925. Elachista orestella Braun (not Busck), Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, li, 210.
Head white, palpi white, antennae white at base, shading to gray at tips. Thorax and fore wings white; at two-thirds the length of the fold, below but close to it, a group of dark brown scales (sometimes reduced to two or three scales) forms an irregular spot; a similar group of scales at the end of the cell. There may he scattered minutely dark-tipped scales in the apical half of the wing; dark-tipped scales may form a broken line in the cilia around apex and scattered black specks in the cilia along termen toward dorsum; or these darktipped scales may be absent, and the plical and discal spots only present. Hind wings pure white or faintly dusted, cilia sometimes tinged with ocherous. Under surface of both wings sometimes dusted with pale ashy scales. Legs white, more or less dusted with pale ashy scales.
Alar expanse: 11 to 12.5 mm.
Male genitalia (fig. 63) : uncus lobes without setae; gnathos elongate; costal area of harpe broad, sacculus processes clavate, slender at base ; lateral margins of anellus sclerotized and dorso-lateral angle of each lobe extended as a sclerotized acute projection, apex of each lobe sharply rounded, setose; vinculum rounded; aedeagus tapering, cornutus an acutely pointed spine.
Type. — ■$ , Logan Canyon, Cache County, Utah, altitude 6ooo feet, July 16, 1924 [A. F.'B. Coll.].
Paratypes. — 2 S , same data as the type ; 1 6 , Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, near Old Faithful, July 4, 1924 [A. F. B. Coll.].
Food plant and early stages unknown.
E. synopla is closely allied to orestello Busck and symmorpha Braun; in wing markings it differs from both by the irregular plical and discal spots, and absence of dark scales on dorsum at tornus ; in male genitalia by the different shape of the anellus lobes, the more slender sacculus processes, and from orestella by the broader thinner costal area of the harpe. From symmorpha it is further separated by the excavated costa of the harpe and by differences in aedeagus and cornuti.

Elachista synopla is a moth of the family Elachistidae. It is found in Wyoming and Utah in the United States.

The length of the forewings is 5.6 mm. The basal fifth of the costa of the forewings is gray. The ground color is white with some brown scales in the distal half. The scales form an irregular spot in the middle of the wing at the fold and another at two-thirds of the wing. The hindwings are light gray and translucent. The underside of the wings is gray.