JULY 1st, 1909. 



The fifty-third regular meeting M'as hekl in the usual pl"ace, 

 jVir. Swezej in the chair. 



PAPEKS BEAD. 



The Ebony Leaf -miner (Gracilaria mabaella) [Lep., n. sp.] 



BY OTTO H. SWEZEY. 



On a trip to Niu Ridge, towards the southeastern end of the 

 Koolau Range of mountains on Oahu, May 16th, 1909, in a 

 grove of native ebony trees (Maha sandwicensis and M. hlUc- 

 ■hrandii) it was observed that a great many of the leaves had 

 been mined by some insect. They were mostly old mines in old 

 leaves, the trees at the time jnst putting forth a new growth, 

 and the new leaves were yet unmined. Search was made for 

 leaves containing the miner, to ascertain its identity, but noth- 

 ing was found in any of the leaves. However, Mr. Jacob Kotin- 

 sky, who was one of the party, found on a leaf a cocoon which 

 he turned over to me for rearing. The moth which emerged in 

 a few days was a Gracilaria of a species different from those 

 already described from these islands. 



May 31st, while in the forest of the Koolau mountains above 

 the Wahiawa homesteads, I came upon a small ebony tree, and 

 its leaves were similarly mined. I also found one cocoon, from 

 which a moth of the same species of Gracilaria emerged in a few 

 days. 



June 27th, I made another trip to Niu Ridge. This time I 

 was so successful as to find a few new leaves of ebony that were 

 mined, and in some of them were nearly full-grown larvse which 

 I succeeded in rearing to maturity. I also succeeded in catching 

 ■ a few moths by sweeping the foliage of the lower branches of 

 the trees. All were of the same species i-eared from the cocoons 

 ^previously mentioned. 



In Microlepidoptera of the Fauna Hawaiiensis, two species 

 of Gracilaria are described. One, Marginestrigata, mines the 

 leaves of 8ida, Xanthium and Datura, and is very abundant on 

 the lowlands of Oahu. The other, epihathra, is rare, and its 



Proc. Haw. Ent. Soc. II, No. 3, May, 1910. 



