TtfE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 15 



o 



CATOCALINE MOTHS FROM GEORGIA. 



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



In the collection of the Bremen Museum are a number of Noctuidce 



Catocalince, brought by Norwich, many years ago, from the vicinity of 



Savannah, Georgia, and belonging to species for the most part new to me. 



Nearly all are now identified by me as described by Guenee in the 



Species General, and their notice here can hardly fail to be of interest. I 



have previously remarked upon the fact that, as we progress southwardly, 



we are met by an increase in the number of species of Catocaline Owlet 



Moths, while the Noctuuue, or typical JVoctuidce, diminish ; the metropolis 



of the former seems to lie in the Tropical, of the latter in the North 



Temperate Zone. But already in the Southern States we meet with 



many species of Banded Owlets, which seem absent in Canada and the 



Northern United States. 



Grammodes, Guen. . 



Guenee describes in the Species General three North American 

 species, Smithii, Sijnilis and Cofisobrina, under the generic term Ophiusa, 

 Tr., a name which, being pre-occupied in zoology, cannot be retained. 

 These three species, then unknown to me in nature, I referred tempor- 

 arily to the genus Grammodes, in the Buffalo Check List, 39, 1876, as 

 also in the New York Check List, 39, 1882. This course is followed by 

 the Philadelphia Check List, 57, 189 1. At this writing I have not the 

 necessary means or material to satisfactorily review the generic position 

 of the species described in the present paper, Of Guenee's three Ameri- 

 can species of Ophiasa, two, Smithii and Consobrina, are now identified 

 by me in the Norwich collection. These two are closely allied, so much 

 so that, at the first glance, they seem the same, though readily distin- 

 guished. Under these circumstances it seems inexplicable to me that 

 Guene'e should place them in two distinct groups, and should interpolate 

 a group and follow Smithii with a species, similis, which, from the des- 

 cription, must differ somewhat widely in appearance. The two species 

 before me seem allied to Euclidia cusp idea, while in the dusty-gray colour, 

 texture and vestiture, they resemble Drasteria. They are distinguished 

 by the fine, even, cleanly-cut and very distinct median lines. All the 

 species here included have a deep brown or blackish, apical, liturate 

 mark. That they will remain under this generic title, which is only a 

 substitute for Ophiusa, as used by Guenee for them, does not seem prob- 

 able to me. 



