THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 29 



OX ANISOPTERYX VERXATA AXD POMETARIA. 



BY H. K. MORRISON, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



There has been some confusion lately in regard to the limits and 

 synonymy of these two common species, partially due to Dr. Harris 

 unsatisfactory reference to them in his " Report on the Insects of Mas- 

 sachusetts,'' 1 84 1, and to the inaccessibility of Prof. Peck's original 

 description of A. vernata. 



In the numerous notes on these species and references to them in 

 recent publications, they are in nearly all cases confounded together or 

 wrongly determined ; and I have not found them correctly named in a 

 single collection which I have examined. 



I reprint the descriptive portion of Prof. Peck's excellent essay. He 

 was only acquainted with vernata and makes no reference to any other 

 species. Dr. Harris considered pometaria the true " canker worm," and 

 vernata a variety ; on vrhat grounds I do not know, as the latter is much 

 the commoner, and, I presume, the most destructive. The following 

 description of vernata was published in the Massachusetts Magazine, vol. 

 vii, Sept. and Oct., 1795, and reprinted in 1S27 in the X^ew England 

 Farmer, vol. v. : 



" Phalaena vernata, geometr a geticornis,alis cinereis, fascii tribiis obsairis, 

 ^^ fuscis, posticis inunaculatis , femina aptera. The wings are ash color 

 " with three obscure blackish transverse stripes, and a small dash of the 

 " same color at the tip ; the under wings are of a uniform color and 

 " rather lighter than the ground color of the upper ones. The body of 

 " the female is nearly four lines in length, ash colored and marked on the 

 '' back with a brown list extending from the thorax to the tail. In thirteen 

 " days the females deposit their eggs ; these are placed in the crannies of 

 " the bark in the forks of small branches, and where there are spots of 

 " moss upon the smaller limbs ; they seem most fond of insinuating 

 " themselves in the cavities between its leaves. For this purpose they 

 " are furnished with a tube through which the ^gg is passed. The egg is 

 " elliptic, one-thirtieth of an inch in length, of a pearl color with a 

 " yellowish cast. The larvae when full grown are about 9 lines long. The 

 " head pale, marked on each side with two transverse blackish stripes, the 



