THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 237 



rest anywhere within reach of its rapacious claws, and then only for some 

 time. This is somewhat borne out by the fact that there are two or three 

 smaller insects in the aquarium with my specimen, which have thus far 

 entirely eluded Ranatra's appetite. 



A noticeable characteristic is the exceeding slowness of this insect's 

 motions. They are practically imperceptible, and only the change of 

 relative position of limbs or body makes one aware that it has moved. 

 On occasion, Raiiatra swims, not very fast nor very gracefully, but 

 sufficiently well to afford it more rapid transportation when it chooses to 

 resort to this method of locomotion. The fringing hairs of its long legs 

 are of great help in this. The second and third pairs are the ones used in 

 swimming and walking, or otherwise moving about, by this insect, the first 

 pair being used almost exclusively for prehension. 



SOME CORRECTIONS TO DR. DYAR'S LIST OF NOCTUIDS. 



BY A. RADCLIFFE GROTE, HILDESHEIM, GERMANY. 



I. 



In Dr. Dyar's recent very full and careful List of North American 

 Noctuids, Wash. Cat., pp. 98-247, are a few errors which I would briefly 

 point out in this journal. They have mostly arisen from a neglect of a 

 couple of papers in Can. Ent., and one in Proc. Am. Phil. Soc, 1895, 

 as well as from a two literal following of Prof Smith's Washington list. 

 With regard to the general sequence of the order adopted, I have given 

 that preferred by myself in these pages, and can only repeat here that the 

 Noctuid series (Lithosia — Nodua) affords a parallel to that of the blues and 

 skippers in the butterflies, and that I should place them below the series 

 Bombyx, LacJuieis — Geometra, disturbing as little as possible the older 

 classifications. 



For sequence and nomenclature see my paper. Can. Ent., XXXIII. , 



116. The papers in Can. Ent. apparently neglected by Dr. Dyar are: 



Vol. XXV., 217, and 153. The types of the forms therein described are, 



I believe, in the National Museum, Washington. They were sent at the 



time to Prof. Riley. 



I shall not especially and in detail again refer to the names of Mr. 

 Walker which incorrectly replace for the moment certain of these given by 

 me. They have been already discussed in these pages ; all the facts with 

 regard to the use of Hormisa are given by me in the paper in the Am. Phil. 

 Proceedings, above alluded to, p. 429, 1895. For Hormisa, which is a 

 synomyn of Epizeuxis, the term Litognatha should be substituted. 



