70 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of the wings is not unlike Acopa. The secondaries are 8-veined : vein 5 

 weaker ; costal vein 3-branched ; 7 to tip ; 7 and 6 a rather short furca- 

 tion ; 8 thrown off from the upper margin of 7 near the .base. The 

 frontal horn is impressed on the face. The moth was evidently classed 

 " next to Utetheisa,'' upon Hiibnerian characters : the paler, spotted and 

 narrower primaries the bright discolorous hind wings. A superficial re- 

 semblance to Emydia and Utetheisa is thus given. Utetheisa has a 

 smooth front and unarmed tibiae, fringed antennae, with two stronger bristles 

 on each joint. Cerathosia has ocelH, and is otherwise distinct from the 

 Lithosians, while the curious termination of the generic title (thosia ?) 

 would seem to be a fragment of the Greek lithos. The discovery of the 

 larvse of Cerathosia will probably throw additional light upon the affinities 

 of the insect. In the mean time, I wish to point out that, in its generic 

 characters, this form coincides in many particulars with the Noctuidae 

 belonging to this tribe, as also to the Tarachitii in its scaly vestiture. 



Tribe Plusiini. 



The thorax is rather short and square, but globose above, with hairy, 

 somewhat silky covering, which forms, posteriorly, an abrupt tuft. The 

 eyes are naked, lashed in Fhisia, unlashed in Telesilla. The wings are 

 somewhat pointed with full external margins. The tibiae are unarmed. 

 The ornamentation of F/usia is remarkable for the silvery or golden 

 middle marks, or sheeny patches. The American species are forty-two 

 in number, exceeding the European thirty-eight ; but, probably more 

 remain to be described with us. We have representatives species, i. e. 

 Putnami, allied to the European festucce, while parilis is found in Lap- 

 land and Labrador. The question whether ni can be separated from our 

 brassicce, I have been inclined to answer negatively. The peculiar ab- 

 dominal tufts speak for the identity of the forms. Among American 

 forms are a greater number of gray and brown species, allied to gutta, 

 interrogationis, cha/cytes, etc., and are, perhaps on the whole, less showy. 

 Nevertheless, a resemblance may be traced between many species, as 

 between V-argenteum and Mappa., Zosimi and balluca, etc. The resem- 

 blance is further shown in the species of Habrostola, which have the cater- 

 pillar i6-footed and the moths without metallic marks, while Plusia has 

 i2-footed larvie. But the most remarkable among the American species 

 of Plusia are the three mimetic forms : thyatiroides which resembles a 



