90 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



RLVISION OF THE GENUS AGROTIS. 



Dear Sir, — A k\y words are called for by Mr. Grote's " remarks " in 

 the March number of the Can. Ent. The parts critical, of course, require 

 no reply, and are really unexpectedly cordial ; nor do the parts explana- 

 tory. Mr. Grote asks why I write here/is, badinodes and insula, instead 

 o{ her His, badinodis and insulsa. In each instance it is occasioned by an 

 original misreading and mistranscription of the name, which had become 

 so fixed that, often as I had seen and written the names, still persisted 

 and prevented my seeing the error. I am obliged to Mr. Grote for point- 

 ing out these cases. Mr. Grote says : " With regard to the classification 

 of the group it is conducted upon the basis first suggested by myself, /. e., 

 the forms with unarmed fore-tibiae are separated, and other divisions are 

 based upon genitalia and sexual characters." He refers to the Can. Ent., 

 XV., p. 51, March, 1883. In 1857 Lederer had already used «// the 

 characters suggested by Mr. Grote, and the latter has made absolutely no 

 original suggestions for dividing the genus. Nor has Mr. Grote, anywhere 

 in the Noctuidie, used or suggested 7iew characters. He has written as 

 though I had found the basis for such work as I have done, in his writings. 

 I wish distinctly to state that this is not the case. Herrich-Schaeffer, 

 von Heinemann, Lederer, and others, all used the same characters that 

 Mr. Grote has used. I claimed no originality for these bases of sub- 

 division, and no credit is due to Mr. Grote therefor. In the systematic 

 study of the sexual characters in this genus and in the American Noctuidie 

 I do claim originality. Lederer did not get the clasper in any case, and 

 used only the external form of the harpes. Mr, Grote does not give any 

 evidence, anywhere in his writings, that he went even as far as Lederer in 

 this direction. Mr. Grote knows the writings to which I have referred, as 

 his earlier papers sufficiently prove. In reference to my citations of deter- 

 minations made by him in collections, these are always to specimens 

 bearing a label in Mr. Grote's own handwriting, and where a type is 

 referred to, it means a specimen so labelled by Mr. Grote himself I 

 refer now to Mr. Grote's paper in the Proc. Am. Phil. Soc, June, 1883, p. 

 176, for the following : — "I conclude this paper by briefly referring to the 

 fact that I have determined my species in many collections. I enumerate 

 those of Mr. Thaxter, Mr. Neumoegen, Mr. Hy. Edwards, Mr. Tepper, 

 and in the Albany collections. A large number of my types are in Mr. 



