162 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ANOTHER GEOMETRID COMBINATION. 



BY RICHARD F. PEARSALL, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



By a recent article in this Journal giving the life-history of Sabulodes 

 arcasaria, Walk., Dr. Otto Seifert demonstrates the need of careful study 

 of some of our species of Geometridje. A similar case has come under my 

 notice. In June, 1896, I gathered in beating ten rough-looking 

 mahogony-red larvse from a small group of oaks ( Quercus nigra). They 

 were exactly alike in form and colour, and apparently well-grown, so I 

 carried them home, supposing they would quickly mature. They had no 

 thought of it. Most of the time they spent in a state of rigid extension, 

 at an angle from the twig they stood upon, feeding only at night and 



eating very little at one time. About Aug. i6th they began to spin long 

 web filaments over the food-plant, and finally disappeared under the loose 

 leaves and chips on the surface of the earth in their box, where they spun 

 very slight cocoons of webbing, sometimes none at all, and transformed to 

 pupae. These produced the imagoes from Sept. 2nd to 6th, four males and 

 four females. Of the latter, three have the large black spot on the inner 

 angle of the primaries, a characteristic marking of the species, and one is 

 without it. I placed them in my collection, therefore, over the name 

 Metanema quercivoraria, Guen. Recently I had occasion to study more 

 carefully my Geometridse, with the intention of arranging them in accord 

 with Dr. Hulst's revision and Dr. Dyar's " List." Much to my surprise, I 

 found my males were excellent examples of Metanema textrinaria, G. 

 ;& R., while the females were quercivoraria, Guen., as I had named them. 

 The pattern of markings on the upper side of these two sexes of one 

 species, as I am now compelled to regard them, is quite unlike, but on 

 the under side the colour, lines and markings are similar, and it is curious 

 this was not noticed before. Although textrinaria was described from a 

 male specimen by Grote and Robinson (Ann. N. Y. Lye. Nat. Hist., V., 

 VIII., p. 449), it was omitted from Grote's "Check List" of 1882, 

 perhaps because he had detected this relationship, though I can find no 

 proof in his writings to that effect. Textrinaria, G. & R., becomes, then, 

 a synonym oi quercivoraria, Guene'e. 



[The above communication was received before the publication of 

 Mr. Taylor's query in the May number respecting this species, but after 

 the article was in type ; the coincidence is interesting. — Ed. C E.] 



