152 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



being in an upward direction from their place of entrance. For a time 

 they cast their chips out of their holes as fast as they are made, but after 

 a while the passage becomes clogged and the burrow more or less filled 

 with the coarse and fibrous fragments or wood, to get rid of which the 

 grubs are often obliged to open new holes through the bark. The seat of 

 their operations is known by the oozing of the sap and the dropping of 

 the saw dust from the holes. The bark around the part attacked begins 

 to swell, and in a few years the trunks and limbs will become disfigured 

 and weakened by large porous tumors, caused by the efforts of the trees 

 to repair the injuries they have suffered. . . . The grubs attain their 

 full size by the 20th of July, soon become pupse, and are changed into 

 beetles and leave the trees early in September. Thus the existence of the 

 species is limited to one year." 



Space will not permit me to speak of the other members of this inter- 

 esting and beautiful family — nobilis, luscus, campestris, undulatus, /ongipes, 

 &c, each one of which is well worthy of a full description and biography. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NOCTUID^F. 



RY A. R. GROTE, 



Director of the Museum, Buffalo Society Natural Sciences. 



Before describing Noctuida? the structure of the front or clypeus, 

 between the compound eyes, must be examined. In a few genera it has 

 a 1 projection, or again a cup-like depression. The presence of ocelli, 

 behind the antennas, must be ascertained, and the compound eyes must be 

 viewed under the microscope to see if the surface is naked or hairy. The 

 tibiae must be examined to see if they are spinose or unarmed, and the 

 armature of the front pair, which is subject to considerable variation, must 

 be studied carefully. After that the shape of the collar, the tuftings of 

 the body, the neuration of the wings, the peculiarities of the antenna? and 

 palpi, and the form of the genitalia should pass under inspection. Struc- 

 tural points given in description s will make it easier to place the species, 

 and since our American genera are not yet in many cases fully understood, 

 such additions to a description of the ornamentation are quite necessary. 



