I'HE CAKADtAN ENTOMOLOGISt. 103 



to consider a good specific character, following Schiner as Prof. Aldrich 

 suggests. The tarsi differ in four main points : The third tarsal joint is 

 not so widened ; the expanded base of the appendage of first joint is 

 wider and shorter, not so narrowed; the two black disks of appendage of 

 third joint are not circular, especially the terminal one which is pointed- 

 oval, and the membraneous expansion of the same appendage occupies a 

 reversed position on the main stalk, being on the anterior side of it, 

 instead of on the posterior as in ornatipes. It is to be hoped that Prof. 

 Aldrich will publish the drawings of his species, together with a descrip- 

 tion of it. 



NOTES ON NOCTURNAL LEPIDOPTERA. 



15Y A. R. GROTE, BREMEN, GERMANY. 

 AGROTIS ALKALIS. 



My types of alba/is, now in collection Brit. Mus., belong to a western 

 species showing a charactertistic white downy surface of the primaries, 

 obscuring the ornamentation. My single type of doanthoides in coll. 

 Graef. belongs to a smooth-winged form with distinct, sordid or brownish- 

 black Cloantha-like markings. It does not appear that albalis has an 

 European representative, while doanthoides is not unlike Agrotis signifera, 

 of which latter it may be the American representative. In his revision Prof 

 Smith unites alba/is and doanthoides, apparently on the evidence of a 

 worn example labelled albalis in the Bailey collection, and .which he 

 claims to be really doanthoides. Thus it seems that the albalis of the 

 revision is virtually doatithoides, and Mr. Smith does not know in that 

 work th'^ true albalis. I have a recollection of the rubbed specimen in 

 the Bailey collection which is labelled albalis; but whether it is one of 

 the original lot or whether I named it during a visit to Albany, I cannot 

 now say. Probably the former, and that I did not recognize it as distinct. 

 When I described albalis, I did not know yet doanthoides, and so it might 

 be that a worn specimen of doanthoides, with the markings lost, might 

 have been wrongly labelled by me, escaping special notice among several 

 albalis. But now in the synonymic catalogue Mr. Smith has seen my 

 types and the real albalis, and considers doanthoides as at least a good 

 variety. In my opinion there is little doubt that the two are specifically 

 distinct. Apparently Prof. Smith does not recognize colour as a character 

 of a true variety, and when a form intergrades with the type he refuses 



