VOL. XXL LONDON, JULY, 1889. No. 



THE N0CTUID.4<: OF NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE. 



(First Paper.) 



BY A. R. GROTE, A. M., BREMEN, GERMANY, 



We have seen in several of my previous papers that the Owlet Moths, 

 or Nochiidce of temperate North America, the United States and Canada, 

 resemble most strongly those of P^urope. The divergence lies chiefly in 

 the greater number of species belonging to the Noctuidce fasciatce, or 

 Catocalince ; and this is a tropical feature, such forms becoming more 

 plentiful as we go southward, although Catocala, the typical genus of the 

 group, does not seem to cross the equator, to which latter fact I have 

 already called attention. Forms allied to Pheocyma ( Homoptera) and 

 belonging to this group, intrude into the European fauna, on the coasts 

 of the Mediterranean. From the fact that the Southern States reach into 

 the sub-tropics, the mountain chains forming no cross barriers, there is no 

 impediment to the range of southern moths, and a greater number of 

 species and genera of these extend into Canada and the north. The 

 resemblance between the Noctumce, or Noctuce nonfasciatce of Europe 

 and North America, can be traced in that the leading European genera 

 are represented with us, and the species are even more numerous. Such 

 leading genera, about which genera of less importance cluster, are Apatela 

 ( Aero ny eta), Agrotis, Hadcna, Mamestra, Heliothis, Eustrotia ( Erastria, 

 Tr. non Hiibn). The genus Catocala has in North America its metro- 

 polis, where the number of forms, species and varieties reaches its maxi. 

 mum. The fact that the forms run very close seems to illustrate the 

 observation that in the North-American fauna there exists an evident 

 tendency to the differentiation, or throwing off of species. Instances of 

 this may be cited in the Lepidoptera, in the genera Argynnis, CoHas, 

 Papilioi Hemaris, Callimorp/ia, Datana, Clisiocampa, Scopeiosoma, 

 among many others. As compared with the North-American species of 



