174 BULLETIN 123, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



1. EXENTERA IMPROBANA (Walker). 



(Figs. 30, 30a, 308.) 



{ioiaphila improbana Walker, Cat. Lepid. Brit Mus., vol. 28, 1863, p. 337. 

 Paedisca diffinana Walker, Cat. Lepid. Brit. Mus., vol. 28, 1863, p. 378. 

 TIcdya cressoniana Clemens, Proc. Ent. Soc. PMla., vol. 3, 1864, p. 514. 

 Exentera apriliana Grote, Can. Ent., vol. 9, 1877, p. 227. — Feknald, in Dyar 



List N. Amer. Lepid., no. 5208, 1903. — Barnes and McDunnough, Check 



List Lepid. Bor. Amer., no. 7111, 1917. 

 Paedisca improMna Walsingham, Illus. Lepid. Heter. Brit. Mus., vol. 4, 1879, 



p. 51. 

 Eucosma impro'bana Fernald, in Dyar List N. Amer. Lepid., no. 5133, 1903. — 



Barnes and McDunnough, Check List Lepid. Bor. Amer., no. 6992, 1917. 

 Proteopteryx cressoniana Fernald, in Dyar List N. Amer. Lepid., no. 5212, 



1903. — Barnes and McDunnough, Check List Lepid. Bor. Amer., no. 7115, 



1917. 



Specimens of both cressoniana Clemens and spoliana Clemens have 

 been indiscriminately determined by Kearfott and others as impro- 

 bana Walker. I have compared our material with Clemens's types 

 and find no great difficulty in separating his two species. Both are 

 variable and in genitalia structure very similar but there are con- 

 sistent differences in pattern and color which will separate them. 

 Clemens's type of cressoniana answering as it does in every detail to 

 the descriptions of improl)ana as given by Walker and Walsinghaem, 

 can hardly be anything but that species and I have no hesitation in 

 making the synonymy. Under the name apriliana Grote two dif- 

 ferent species have been confused. The greater number so de- 

 termined are improhana Walker. A few of the smaller specimens 

 are referable to the genus Epinotia. I am describing them elsewhere 

 in this paper under the name Epinotia hicordana. 



The life history of improhana has not been worked out. We have 

 in the National Museum two specimens reared by Doctor Dyar from 

 larvae taken on oak (Bellport, Long Island) and it is very likely 

 that that is its natural food plant and that its life history and habits 

 are much the same as those of spoliana. The moths of both species 

 are commonly taken together in early spring, appearing before the 

 trees leaf out or just as the buds are opening. 



Male genitalia figured from specimen in National Collection from 

 New York (" Comstock No. 177, Sub 1 "). 



Distribution according to specimens in National Collection, Ameri- 

 can Museum, and collection Barnes : Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 

 New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Missouri. 



Alar expanse. — 15-21 mm. 



Types. — In British Museum {improlianxi., diifinana, apriliana) ; 

 in Academy Natural Science, Philadelphia {cressoniana). 



