NOTES ON THE GENUS OLENE WITH DESCRIPTION 



OF A NEW SPECIES. 



BY WM. BARNES, M.D., AND J. MCDUNNOUGH, PH. D., DECATUR, ILL. 



In our Contributions, Vol. IV, No. 2, p. 129, we called attention to two 

 distinct species of Olene larva found in Maine; the one we identified as that of 

 vagans B. & McD. and the other as ivillingi B. & McD. This latter identifica- 

 tion was, however, an unfortunate error on our part; at the time we had only 

 the single 6 type of ivillingi before us, a rather suffuvSed, poorly marked speci- 

 men, but later Prof. W'illing was kind enough to send us for examination the 

 co-type and the larva from which the figure in our revision of the genus (1913, 

 Contr. II, (2), PI. V, fig. 5) was made. These proved conclusively that our 

 identification of the Maine larva as ivillingi was incorrect and that our treat- 

 ment in the revision should hold. From information received from Mr. T. 

 Spalding, of Provo, Utah, concerning the larva of grisea B. & McD., we believe 

 that this name also for the present must remain associated with vagans as the 

 two larvae agree in lacking the dorsal hair pencil on segment XI; in any case 

 grisea cannot be associated with the Maine species which we wrongly called 

 ivillingi, the larva of this being at once separable by the presence of the afore- 

 said dorsal hair-pencil. 



Mr. W. H. Brittain, Provincial Entomologist of Nova Scotia, is about to 

 publish a Bulletin on the life-history of vagans which obviates the necessity for 

 any further remarks on our part concerning this species. 



During the summer of 1918 Dr. McDunnough was fortunate enough to 

 discover eight more larvae of the second Olene species on oak and beech trees 

 in the vicinity of Ottawa, Ont.; these agreed exactly with the specimen found 

 feeding on hazel the previous summer in Maine and eventually hatched out into 

 three d^'s and five 9 s; the cf's agreed well with the Maine specimen 

 figured in our Contributions, Vol. IV, PI. XX, fig. 7; the 9 's proved to be 

 identical with our 9 type of vagans, a fact which we had already hinted at 

 in our notes (1. c. p. 129) when restricting the type of vagans to the cf specimen. 

 As the species is without a name we offer the following description based on 

 our Ottawa material. 

 Olene dorsipennata, sp. nov. 



cT. — Head, thorax and primaries rather even, dull, greenish gray; a straight 

 black basal half-line; t. a. line broadly geminate, angled outwardly slightly in 

 the cell, strongly in the fold and again immediately above inner margin, the 

 included space partially filled with brownish shading; reniform of the usual 

 broad lunate shape, incompletely outlined in black with traces of white shading 

 within and around the edges, but much less prominently than is usually found 

 in the group; t. p. line irregularly dentate, slightly bulging opposite the ce.l and 

 strongly angled inwardly above inner margin, followed by a diffuse, dull liver- 

 brown subterminal shade which in turn is bordered outwardly by a poorly 

 defined whitish shade, most prominent as a small, white patch above anal 

 angle; an irregular terminal black line slightly interior to the outer edge of wing, 

 especially at anal angle; fringes greenish-gray, faintly checkered outwardly with 

 pale ochreous. Secondaries dark smoky with faint traces of a darker subterminal 

 line. Beneath smoky gray, darker in cell of primaries with large discal dot and 

 diffuse subterminal line on all wings. Expanse 37 mm. 



May. 1919 



