6 PREFACE. 



Some years ago it was contemplated by Dr. C. V. Riley and myself 

 to issue a complete monograph of this family, giving all that could be 

 learned of the early stages as well as the more strictly systematic work, 

 and for several years a great deal of material was gathered. It is to 

 Dr. Kiley that I owe a very large part of the facilities for study in the 

 scattered collections, and my sincere gratitude is due to him for his many 

 kindnesses of all descriptions. Pressureof more imperative duties com- 

 pelled Dr. lliley to abandon his part of the work, and I have gradually 

 published such portions as were completed. 



With the knowledge to be obtained in American collections, the ne- 

 cessity for studying the material contained in those of Europe, and 

 especially that in the British Museum, became constantly more obvious. 

 In September, 1891, it became possible for me to get away for a few 

 weeks, and in the interest of the United States National Museum un- 

 der instructions from the assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tute in charge of the Museum, I carefully studied parts of the collec- 

 tions contained in the museums at London, Paris, and Berlin, and visited 

 also the Staudinger collection at Dresden. 



The notes made by me during this trip are incorporated in the follow- 

 ing pages; but a brief statement of the character and condition of the 

 collections examined may not be amiss. 



The British Museum contains of American Noctuidre the material 

 collected by Doubleday and worked over by Guenee in 1852, and by 

 Walker between 1856 and 1858; the material from all other sources 

 worked over by Walker during the same period; the Zeller collection 

 and the Grote collection, besides the miscellaneous accumulations from 

 all sources, including a very interesting lot collected by Lord Walsiug- 

 ham. The Doubleday material is in large part provided with locality 

 labels, but it also contains specimens purchased by him, the fatherland 

 of which is more Than doubtful. Guenee has in some instances written 

 "New Yorck," where nothing on the insect nor in the record will author- 

 ize it. It is in most cases easy to identify the specimens described by 

 Guenee, though not all of them hav^ labels in his handwriting. Walker 

 had, in addition to the Doubleday material containing the Guenee types, 

 a lot of material collected in Nova Scotia and in the British Possessions 

 in North America. Some of the Abbot material is also in the collec- 

 tion. Mr. W. F. Kirby says (Can. Ent., xx, 231), "There are a number 

 of specimens originally collected by Abbot in the British Museum and 

 probably in other collections," and this is borne out by the fact that- 

 some of the specimens seen by me are evidently the originals of the 

 figures contained in the magnificent collection of Abbot's drawings in 

 the Museum. Among them are such rarities as Cossuts basalis Wlk. 

 (Inguromorpha slossoni Hy. Edw.), and Acherdoaferraria Wlk. ( Varina 

 ornata Neum.), both of them only recently rediscovered and red escribed. 

 The figures of these species are exact copies of the specimens furnish- 

 ing Walker's types, though the Museum record gives no clue to the 

 source of the specimens. 



