16 B. C. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



NOTES ON OPORINIA AUTUMNATA Gn. 



By G. O. Day 



Any information that serves to identify or determine some of our B.C. 

 Lepidoptera that are doubtfully named, is so much to the good ; there- 

 fore the following notes on the above named species may be of interest. 



I have long been of the opinion that the moth recorded in our 

 Check List of B.C. Lepidoptera as Asthena dilutata Denis & Schifif, was 

 not that species. (I may mention in passing that in Barnes & McDun- 

 nough's recently published Check List the family name is changed to 

 Oporinia Hbn., which name we may now accept.) In order to find out 

 if my doubts were correct, I obtained in 1913 some ova from the only 

 representative of the genus Oporinia I have taken in this district 

 (Duncan) and I bred the insect through to the perfect state in 1914. 

 I found that the larvae differed sufficiently from those of genuine 

 dilutata, as figured in Buckler's Larvae of British Lepidoptera, to justify 

 my suspicions. Last August I received a letter from Dr. Harrison, of 

 the Zoological Department of the University of Durham, England, ask- 

 ing me if I could let him have ova of O. dilutata from British Columbia 

 for the purpose of experimenting in the crossing of that species with 

 the closely allied species O. autumnata. Fortunately, I was able to 

 supply him with ova of the Oporinia occurring here, and in his letter 

 of acknowledgment he wrote as follows : "The eggs are those of 

 O. autumnata, not dilutata. Dilutata has a small egg, polished and 

 markingless, about one-third the size of these. Autumnata differs in 

 nowise from yours." 



When I was in England I was well acquainted with both dilutata 

 and autumnata in the perfect state, and the two were accepted by all 

 entomologists there as distinct species. 



As Drs. Barnes & McDunnough in their Check List make autumnata 

 only a form of O. dilutata and not a separate species, I wrote to the 

 authors and enclosed Dr. Harrison's letter, calling their attention to 

 the information contained therein. In reply Dr. McDunnough stated 

 that the matter had been cleared up in 1917, by Mr. Swett, who gave 

 the new name autumnata var. henshawi to our North American form. 



It is satisfactory to feel that progress is being made in the identi- 

 fication of our B.C. insects. 



I assume from Barnes & McDunnough's list that O. dilutata also is 

 found in North America, but I have failed to find the species in the 

 Cowichan district so far. 



