66 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 



Prof. Comstock finds that Fabricius in 1792 uses " Noctua " for 380 

 species, and this is not in the " Nomenclator." More than this, I have 

 found that Fabricius uses the term " Noctua " for 309 species already in 

 the Mantissa, 1787.* So that we are getting more light and more facts, 

 and it may be that my rejection, although warranted by the "Nomenclator," 

 may have to be reconsidered. But there remains the fact that the type 

 is unknown [pending what we may hope to hear from Mr. Kirby's 

 researches] and, also, that no author is obliged to use a generic term 

 which has not a properly designated type. In this case I have shown at 

 least the necessity for reviewing Guene'e's statement, that his genus 

 " Noctua " is a proper restriction of the Linnean term. 



And now as to Agrotis and Prof. Smith's statements on page 6. He 

 does not quote my full text on p. 16 of the Bremen List, where I show 

 that he copies the sense and as near as may be my words as to the char- 

 acters on which we may divide the genus, without any acknowledgment. 

 He excuses the omission now by the " bald statement " that the contents 

 of my paperf were not " in any sense of the word original," and that 

 Lederer used the characters in his work on " the European Noctuids so 

 long ago as 1857." This is the first I have heard that Lederer had 

 worked up the American Agrotids; it would have spared me much 

 trouble had it been so. In reality Lederer, only discusses the European 

 species, and my work on the American and my suggestions as to the 

 characters to be found serviceable was in so far original. But the state- 

 ment that the characters proposed and observed by me were not 

 " original" seems incorrect. First : Lederer does not propose to use the 

 unarmed fore tibiae as an excluding character. He alternates groups of 

 the species with armed and unarmed tibia^J So that I should have been 

 credited for this original suggestion. Second : I am the first to discover 

 the tuberculate front in Agrotis; this discovery is "original" and it does 

 not detract from its originality that I only applied Carneades to the two 

 species which I examined and only could examine at the time of my dis- 

 covery, I being then very ill and having parted-with my collection. That 

 some of the European species probably have the tuberculate front is 

 implied by Prof Smith when suggesting that Chera should replace 

 Carneades. But Lederer does not mention the clypeal tubercle or 

 elevation at all. 



* Grote, Die Apateliden, Mitt. Roem. Mus. San., 1896, 

 + Can. Ent., XV., 51, 1S83. 



+ Lederer, Syst. Noct., p. Si. I have constantly in my writings given L^lerer 

 every credit for his observations on the characters in this family. . . 



