THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 227 



claw and Sphida, which differs from Arzama by the clypeal tubercle, as 

 independent genera on the strength of these single characters. The tribe 

 Arzaminl is not represented in Europe, and, beyond the Dicopini, is so 

 far the first distinct structural departure in North America from the 

 European types. While Dicopis and allies resemble the Bombycoidi or 

 certain Hadenini in appearance, the Arzamifii have a distinct and 

 singular form, and, while their affinities evidently lie with the Nonagrians, 

 their peculiar larval structure and habit clearly warrants our considering 

 them as constituting a distinct group or tribe of the Noctuidce. The re- 

 semblance in the female abdomen of the Arzaniini to the Bombycid genus 

 Eriogastcr, and the unusual larval condition, lends interest to this tribe. 

 May we not consider the Arzamini as an American survival of a very 

 ancient form of the Noctuidce ? 



Tribe Nonagriini. 



This tribe differs from the Hadenini in the absence of body tuftings, and 

 in the finer, smoother vestiture ; only in a few genera is there a median 

 thoracic ridge. In these characters Gortyna agrees with the Hadenini ; 

 the habit of the larva probably associates Euthisanotia, a tropical genus 

 with foot- hold in Florida, with Gortyna. The present tribe is one of the 

 most interesting of the family. The moths are pale or straw-coloured, 

 some with a warmer, a little red or ochre tint, and the larvas feed in reeds 

 or grass. Nonagria has a stout, clypeal projection, and naked eyes ; the 

 larva lives in the stems of Typha and Phragmites, pupating in its burrow. 

 We have eight North American species described ; probably many more 

 remain to be discovered, as the moths must be bred, and are not often 

 captured. In Europe, seven are known. So far as known to me, our 

 species are not like the European, or representative. We have an immense 

 species, with the proportions of a small Sphinx., from Florida, my N. 

 permagna. Our most usual species, perhaps, in the east, of moderate 

 size, is my siibflava. No species are known to me from California, but 

 we must expect that they await discovery. These Noctuidce, with boring 

 larvae, inhabiting swamps, must be an old form of the family, once, at least, 

 of very general distribution. The European genus Coenobia, with one 

 species, I have not found in North America, but I discovered a Western 

 American genus Fota, with two small species, which, from its clypeal 



