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Vol. XLII. LONDON, OCTOBER, 1910. No. 10. 



NOTES ON CERTAIN T^NIOCAMPA SPECIES. 



BY JOHN B. SMITH, NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J. 



In the Canadian Entomologist for June, 1910, Mr. F. H. Wolley 

 Dod has some very interesting notes on certain noctuids, among them 

 some Tceniocampid species, in which I have made some studies of my own 

 in time past, and again more recently. 



Mr. Dod certainly has an excellent eye for species, and I would as 

 soon trust his comparsions as those of any one I know. But when it 

 comes to a question of determining the status of a species, surely we have 

 gotten a little beyond the point when a mere statement that no material 

 differences can be observed, or that they "run together," can be considered 

 as sufficient. 



Mr. Dod says that alia On., is not a Tceniocampa, but is an Hadena, 

 and the same as the form named suffusca by Morrison. In that I am quite 

 willing to follow him, although the type passed the previous scrutiny of 

 GrotP, Edwards and Hampson, as well as myself and the others who have 

 looked over the collection. Mr. Dod states that the name hibisci On., 

 must now be used, although he has seen neither type nor, apparently, 

 description. He is seemingly unfamiliar with the fact that Guenee's name 

 has no type; that the description is based on a figure, and that, as I pointed 

 out in my Revision of Tceniocampa, the description was obviously that of 

 Mr. Morrison's confluens. We get again the unfortunate condition of the 

 type form of a species being represented by what is really rather an abber- 

 ration than even a variety. Fitch's name, instabilis, will then represent 

 the usual form that we have been accustomed to call alia. 



Mr. Dod also points out that pacifica Harv., has been misidentified 

 heretofore, or rather that specimens not identical with it have been con- 

 fused under the same name. Again Mr. Dod is probably correct. Dr. 

 Harvey's description specifically calls attention to the absence of the 

 orbicular, although that feature also occurs in specimens of the confused 

 species. In the original description Dr. Harvey refers to his three 

 examples as females, Hampson refers to the types as males, while Mr. 

 Dod refers to a female type. The single example in my collection is not 

 rparked Canada, as Mr. Dod says, but "Corvallis, Oregon, IV, 22 at light," 



