[Annai^ N.Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. XVIIl, No. 2, Part II, pp. 91-127. January, 1908.] 



NEW SPECIES AND GENERA OF THE LEPIDOPTEROUS library 

 FAMILY NOCTUID.E FOR 1907. PART II.* new v/^». 



POT AT 



By John B. Smith, Sc.D. oa^ocn. 



No branch of zoology has profited more by the explorations and collec- 

 tions made during the past decade than entomology. Not only have new 

 species been found in localities collected over for the first time, but, as the 

 result of more thorough investigation of the fauna of older regions, we have 

 learned that mere resemblance to species of other faunal regions does 

 not mean necessarily specific identity. With more abundant material, our 

 conception of the limits of species became more accurate, and definition 

 became possible. 



In the Canadian northwest a quite distinct noctuid fauna is becoming 

 gradually known, and in the southwestern portion of our own territory the 

 canyons are yielding not only specific but also generic types heretofore 

 unknown. 



For some time past, material has accumulated gradually in my collection 

 which could not be referred satisfactorily to known or described species, — 

 sometimes in single examples only, sometimes in small series, — and this 

 has increased gradually to such an extent as to demand a general clearing-up, 

 although descriptive work of this kind is perhaps the least attractive to the 

 true student. 



Viridemas nov. gen. 



Head retracted, small; front with an upright, blade-like corneous process, 

 which reaches to the end of the short, rough vestiture, and does not modify the 

 general impression of a fiat head. Palpi very short and weak, not extending beyond 

 the edge of the front. Tongue weak, not functional. Eyes large, round, naked, 

 not fringed with lashes. Antennse of normal length; those of the male -n-ith the 

 segments marked and the projecting angles set with .short bristle-tufts, those of 

 the female simple. Thorax short, quadrate; collar round, flat; patagia well marked, 



' Part I of the descriptive papers for 1907 is in the Transactions of the American Entomo- 

 logical Societ5', Vol. XXXIII, pp. 125-143, where twenty-nine species are described. In the 

 present paper forty-seven species are characterized and four new generic terms are proposed. 



The types are in most instances in the author's collection at Rutgers College, New Bruns- 

 wick: a few of them are at the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. 



I 



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