238 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



one specimen, as in the figure, the inner part of the sign is 

 V-shaped. Mine has, instead cf a tail, a large round outer dot 

 touching the lower angle of the V. The fact that one of my 

 eight specimens has an almost V-shaped sign, and the rest have 

 it nearer rectangular, i.ioes not indicate greater variation than 

 exists in californica and other speciesin my collection. On the 

 strength of this Duncans specimen, which I may remark bears 

 some resemblance to a sma.\\ viridisignata, it seems not unlikely that 

 celsa may turn out to be at least one of the correct names for my 

 Kaslo and Nelson species. I quite expect ultimately to find at 

 least a close relationship to interrogationis. 



As regards the great variation known to exist in the signs of 

 some species of this genus, the late Mr. Tutt's remarks concerning 

 interrogationis in the British Isles are interesting. "The great 

 character in this species is the endless variation which the central 

 silvery marks or characters undergo. Truly no two are alike, and 

 to look down a long series at this mark, is something like looking 

 at a series of Chinese characters. Some are like the normal mark 

 in iota and pulchrina, composed of a V and a dot ; others have them 

 united as in gamma; others again are like the Greek «; one forms 

 a tiny solid blotch as in hractea, and so on." (British Noctuse and 

 their Varieties, IV. 36, 1892.) 



As to u-aureum, which Ottolengui claimed was not a North 

 American species at all, and further remarked that the description 

 associated it with interrogationis (Journ, N.Y. Ent. Soc. X. 69, 

 June 1902), it may be observed that the only localities given for it 

 in Staudinger's Catalogue are Greenland, Labrador, and North 

 America. He also places ''Interrogationis var. grcenlandica Staud." 

 as a synonym. The types of ii-aiirenm are probably in Mr. Ober- 

 thur's collection at Rennes. which by an unfortunate chance I 

 just missed seeing in March 1912. Under the name in the British 

 Museum were three specimens supposed to be North American. 

 One had label "United States" at side. Sir George Hampson 

 wrote me concerning .the species: "Our specimens are from the 

 Grote collection without exact locality. It is considered that the 

 types really came from Labrador, and not from Dalecarlia, Swe- 

 den, as described." Concerning the Grote collection specimens, 

 during my first visit to the British Museum early in 1909, I wrote, 



