THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 127 



NEW NOCTUIDS FOR 1903. No. 3— WH^H NOTES ON SOME 



DESCRIBED SPECIES. 



BY JOHN I!. SMITH, SC. D. , RUTGERS COLLEGE, N. J. 



The first paper of this series is in the January number of this 

 Journal (pp. 9-14) ; the second is in the April issue of the Journal of the 

 New York Entomological Society. The present instalment deals chiefly 

 with species found in the Western Provinces of British America and 

 a few others that are likely to occur there. The determination of a 

 new species of Rancora from Calgary and Manitoba makes , some general 

 remarks on that genus timely. There is a number of excellent collectors 

 now hard at work on the Noctuid fauna of that general region and ex- 

 tending westward to A^ancouver, whose work deserves the greatest praise 

 and to whose efforts is due the development of a totally new faunal 

 region for this family of moths. 



Acronycta tartarea, n. sp.— Head, thorax and outside of tibise black- 

 ish ; orbits of the eyes nearly white. Primaries uniform, very deep 

 smoky, almost black ; the maculation neatly written in velvety black. 

 There is a black basal streak to the t. a. line, which is most obvious at 

 this point, fading toward the costa and inner margin ; there is a little spur 

 at the middle of the streak beneath, and above it is bordered by a narrow 

 white line. T. a. line almost obsolete, geminate, outwardly oblique. 

 T. p. line velvety black, preceded by a whitish shade, broken, squarely 

 exserted over the cell, deeply incurved below, the black lunate mark in 

 the submedian interspace forming the most {prominent part of the wing. 

 A black streak begins just within the centre of this mark, crosses it and 

 reaches the outer margin above the inner angle. Three white costal dots 

 between t. p. and s. t. lines. S. t. line whitish, diffuse, broken, followed 

 by small black interspaceal spots. A series of black terminal lunules, 

 preceded by whitish shadings. Fringes smoky at base, outwardly white. 

 Orbicular moderate, round, black-ringed, inwardly edged by white 

 scales. Reniform rather large, broadly lunate, narrowly outlined in black, 

 inwardly edged by sparse white scales, centre a little brown tinged. 

 Secondaries white, with a smoky outer border, broadest at apex, and 

 nearly lost at anal angle. Beneath : primaries smoky, the margins paler; 

 a vague pale extra-median line. Secondaries more powdery, with a dis- 

 tinct discal spot. 



Expands. — 1.40 inches-35 mm. 



Habitat. — Calgary, Alberta, June 23, head of Pine Creek. 



