10 PREFACE. 



Here again I found a well-preserved and well-arranged collection, not 

 particularly rich in North American species, but with many South 

 American forms valuable for comparisons, generic and otherwise, and 

 with a considerable number of arctic forms, including some of Dr. 

 Staudinger's typos. 



I owe thanks here to Dr. Karsc.h for his obliging courtesy in giving 

 such assistance as I asked. In fact, the most pleasant and agreeable 

 features of my trip were the hearty cooperation I met with everywhere 

 and the ready willingness to aid, by any means in their power, that 

 distinguished all those having charge of the collections 1 desired to see. 



The trip to Dresden was a distinct disappointment. Dr. Staudiuger 

 was not in town, and the Moeschler collection had not been acquired by 

 him as I had been informed it had. Mr. E. Bang-Haas did all in his 

 power by showing me such northern material as had been studied by 

 Dr. Staudinger; but this was a poor substitute for what I had expected 

 or had been led to expect. My leave of absence was then about ex- 

 hausted and I returned to America via Bremen. 



In preparing the notes made in the European collections I found that 

 it would be necessary to refer to the greater part of the described 

 species, and after consulting with Dr. Eiley, I concluded to prepare a 

 catalogue embodying not only rny notes on the types in foreign collec- 

 tions, but also on those in American collections. My aim is to give, as 

 nearly as may be, the present location of the type specimen of every 

 noctuid species described from America since Guenee wrote. 



This necessitates a reference to some of the American collections 

 containing types. Of the individual collections, by far the most im- 

 portant is that of Mr. B. Neumoegeu, of New York city. Mr. Neuin- 

 oegen has succeeded in accumulating a very large amount of valuable 

 material, mainly from the Western States, and this has been in large 

 part named by Mr. Grote, Mr. Henry Edwards, and more recently by 

 myself. He has the types of 233 or about 13 per cent of our species; 

 not always unique types, but specimens so marked. 



Next in importance is the collection of the late Henry Edwards, also 

 of New York city. Mr. Edwards described many species from his own 

 collection and furnished specimens for a considerable number of the 

 species described by Messrs. Grote and Harvey. A large part of the 

 value of Mr. Edwards' collection is derived from the fact that he per- 

 sonally collected a very great portion of it, and that it is labeled with 

 the exact locality of capture and not merely with a State label. This 

 collection has been acquired for the American Museum of Natural 

 History in New York city, and will be, when in place there, a most 

 valuable one for the student. 



The collection of Mr. Fred Tepper, of Brooklyn, now the property of 

 the Agricultural College of Michigan is next in rank, containing 114 

 types, many of them described by Mr. Morrison, and some of them 

 duplicating the "types" in other collections. 



