NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 205 



Expanse 23 mm. Habitat. Texas, Dallas Co., Boll, in Mus. 

 Comp. Zoolog3^, Cambridge. This species differs from our com- 

 mon species from New York, provisionally determined as Ghalce- 

 donia Hiibn.? by the smaller reniform, stonter form, and the 

 peculiar basal shading on the primaries. 



Apamea Ochsenheimer (1816). 



This genus is established in the Schmetterlinge von Europa, 4, 

 p. 75, and divided into three " families" or groups : " A," with 

 nictitans, etc.; " B," with/uruj?cuZo, etc. ; " C," with festacea, etc. 

 Hiibner next proposes distinct genera which sufficient!}'- corre- 

 spond to Ochsenheimer's three groups viz., Sideridis fov the group 

 "A," Oligia for the group "B," and Exarnes and Ogygia for 

 group " C." For some one of these genera the original term 

 Apamea has to be restored. 



Boisduval, in 1829, divides ^2^^"^^^ Oclis. into two genera; retain- 

 ing Apamea for a group of species headed by 7n'c(f/7an,9, which era- 

 braces species included under all three of Ochsenheimer's divisions, 

 and proposing Luperina for testacea, and allied forms. This latter 

 genus is styled ^''Apamea^^ by Lederer, in whose work an exposi- 

 tion of generic character is the strongest feature. Lederer's genus 

 '^ Lnpe?H7ia,^^ contains none of BoisduvaPs species, and cannot 

 remain. It must be resolved into Luceria, v. Hein., with the type 

 virenx, and Ledereria with the group " B." For Lederer's 

 ''' Apamea''' the term Luperina, Boisd. (with the type testacea), must 

 be retained. 



Two generic types nictitam^ and leucostigma are included in 

 Boisduval's genus Apamea ; the other species seem to be now con- 

 sidered as Hadenas s. g. Oligia. The original type of Gortyna, 

 Hiibner (Tentamen) is I'eferred by Guenee to the genus Hydroecia, 

 Guen. I have restored Hiibner's original application in the " List 

 of the Noctuidfe of North America." In my work I have not 

 arbitrarily chosen the type of an}^ genus, but have endeav^ored to 

 apply the rules of zoological nomenclature throughout. In our 

 researches after the true type of Apamea we must choose between 

 these two species, nictitans and leucostigma., both contained in 

 Ochsenheimer's family " A," in the order cited, and both con- 

 tained in oisduval's restriction of that term. For the first spe- 

 cies we have Hiibner's term Sideridis to consider. Giving the 

 priority to Apamea in the first instance, I think we must consider 

 all oi" Hiibner's genera erected at the expense of this term, and 



