THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 177 



SOME ORIGINAL DESCRIPTIONS BY GUENEE. 



BY A. RADCLIFFE GROTE, A. M., HILDESHEIM, GERMANY. 



The supposed " types " of Guenee in the British Museum have been 

 examined, with the result that some well-established names of Noctuids 

 have been displaced by an uncertain determination. Guenee's collec- 

 tion, which I saw in Chateaudun during the lifetime of the author, is 

 now with M. Oberthier, and should be looked through. But the only 

 evidence we have which is vital is the original description ; where this is 

 inapplicable the name should not be used. Only on this evidence can 

 we assume that any of the British Museum specimens are the real types 

 of either Walker or Guenee, because the collections have not been kept 

 intact as Walker left them, and because no type labels were attached by 

 the latter to the specimens. In these pages I have, I hope successfully, 

 rehabilitated Mamestra lubens, and, by publishing the following trans- 

 lations, perhaps other undoubted names may be restored to their 

 rights. I maintain, for instance, that whatever may be written on the 

 subject, a name like Apatela subochrea should always be retained for the 

 species, in reference to the contradictory opinions which have appeared 

 in print. What we want is certainty in designating the object, and, when 

 circumstances clearly admit of doubt and authors disagree, the sure title 

 should be preferred in every case. There is now far more confusion as 

 to specific titles of our Noctuids than formerly, when the current deter- 

 minations were mainly supplied by me. 



i. Leucania insueta, Guenee, I., 81. 



"32. mm. This has much resemblance to obsoleta. Fore wings 

 appearing a little less pointed at apices. They are darker; there is a 

 small basal black line beneath median vein. The dots forming the t. p. 

 line are more confused, more oblong, and the line is strongly deflexed at 

 costa. The white cellular dot is hardly legible ; finally the ends of the 

 nervules are white to the fringe, where the streaks broaden a little. 

 Hind wings blackish-gray, nowhere white. All the wings darker 

 beneath. New York ; coll. Doubleday. A single poor male." 



This description does not fit adonea at all, which I believe to be dis- 

 tinct from any species described by either Guenee or Walker. 

 2. I append here Guene'e's description of what is now commonly 

 called Agrotis ochrogaster in the Canadian Reports. Since A. turris, 

 Grote, and its red form, A. gu/aris, are common, this description might be 



