226 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Ch. Brucei, W. H. Edw., I cannot separate from Bore, at least not 

 from the examples of the latter I have from Dr. Staudinger, who, as an 

 authority on the Palaearctic fauna, has no peer. 



Ch. Beanii, Elwes, will easily be known always by its almost uniform 

 dark smoky hue, and will hold its own ; Asshnilis, with which Edwards 

 conlounds it, being only a synonym of Crambis, Frey. 



The true Ch. Semidea I have in numbers from Okkak, Labrador, and 

 they differ in nothing from the Mt. Washington ones, as neither do several 

 in my possession from Hudson Strait. Those from Colorado (which 

 Edwards claims are Oeno) in some instances, especially in the females, 

 have a slightly more ochrey shade, and the secondaries beneath are not 

 so darkly coloured in the moss-like mottling, but these are entirely too 

 slight grounds to sustain any claims to specific distinctness. I possess 

 three distinct species from Labrador, \\z., Semidea, Crartibis and Taygete, 

 and the two first are as easily separable from each other as from the last. 

 As to the value of the clasper depended upon by Mr. Elwes in associ- 

 ating species, I certainly have no " practical experience in the matter," 

 having never given it much attention, hence can offer no opinion, though 

 from what I have noted of other instances of sexual peculiarities they 

 sometimes would unite species otherwise by no means close. 



NOTES ON SOME OF THE NOCTU^ IN THE BRITISH 

 MUSEUM COLLECTION. 



BY J. W. TUTT, F. E. S, (EDITOR OF " THE ENTOMOLOGIST'S RECORD "), 



LONDON, ENGLAND. 



Some remarks made by Mr. Grote in his " Note on Acronyda 

 cristifera" lead me to support his contention that in the British Museum 

 " types may have become misplaced." I am, of course, simply a 

 specialist at European Nocture, and only such material from outside 

 countries as helps my work (more especially with the British species) has 

 any great interest for me, and only so far as this can any remarks that I 

 make be considered of value. 



In writing my British Noctuce and their Varieties, I was obliged to 

 refer continually to the British Museum material. The Noctu^ had then 

 just been re-arranged by Mr. Butler, and it had been re-arranged in the 

 very tip-top of museum methods. The great Zeller collection had been 

 incorporated, Mr. Grote's collection ditto, and the result no one can 

 imagine. I maintain that collections of this kind have an inherent value 



