16 B. C. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



NOTES ON GEOMETRIDAE NEW TO BRITISH COLUMBIA 



By E. H. Blackmore, Victoria, B.C. 



This is the fourth year in succession that I have presented you 

 with a paper under a similar title. Each year I am in hopes that I 

 have come to the end of the new additions to the list, but after another 

 season's work, I always seem to find some species and varieties that 

 have not been previously recorded. 



The present paper embraces two species and eight varieties new to 

 science that have been described during the past twelve months,' and four 

 species and three varieties new to British Columbia, making a total of 

 six species and eleven varieties to be added to the list as a result of 

 last year's investigations. 



I will take the new species and varieties first. 



Nomenia obsoleta Swett. When rearranging the collection of the 

 late Captain R. V. Harvey. I came across three specimens that were 

 labelled Venusia cambrica Curtis. Although bearing a strong super- 

 ficial resemblance to this species they seemed rather small, and on 

 further examination I found that they were all taken in April. Now as 

 cambrica does not emerge until about the first of July, I knew at once 

 that it could not be that species. Upon further examination under a 

 microscope I found that in the males the antennae were somewhat 

 difi'erent, being unipectinate, while in cambrica they are bipectinate and 

 in pearsalli filiform ciliate. As they evidently did not belong to either 

 of these two genera, they naturally fell into the genus Nomenia, which is 

 closely allied. As we had no representative of this genus in British 

 Columbia, I concluded that it was new and sent it to Mr. L. W. Swett, 

 who verified my conclusions and named it obsoleta. This name is rather 

 appropriate, as I have not seen it anywhere else with the exception of 

 one in the Provincial Museum, which was taken in the same month and 

 year— April, 1908. 



I have worked this district thoroughly for the past five seasons, 

 but have not taken anything approaching it, so that I am afraid it has 

 disappeared. 



Diastictis andersoni Swett. This species was taken by Mr. E. M. 

 Anderson at Atlin, B.C., in 1914, and was at first thought to be a luteous 

 form of occiduaria Pack., but the extra-discal lines are differently curved 

 and there is no trace of any yellow shading. It is closely allied' to 

 inceptaria Walk., specimens of which I have from Michigan. 



Hydriomena californiata ab niveifascia Swett. In Capt. Harvey's 

 collection there were several specimens of Hydriomena under the name 

 of californiata. On looking them over, I found two which were quite 

 distinctive from the others, and which have been named as above. The 

 chief points of distinction are the silvery white bands which replace the 

 ordinary red shadings and smoky bands of the typical form. 



