[ Apri l 



Description of a New Genus and Species of North American NOCTUINA, 



BY AUG. R. GROTE. 



Curator of Entomology. Buftalo Society Natural Sciences. 



PHILOMMA. nov. gen. 



Size moderate ; form slight ; wings broad ; anterior wings with the 

 internal margin straight, external mai'gin moderately oblique and 

 rounded, costal margin slightly rounded, 12-veined, veins 5 and free, 

 vein 4 equidistant from 3 and 5 at base, diseal cell open, subcostal cell 

 small, elongate, its lower marginal vein indented midway between each 

 extremity; posterior wings i^-veined, veins 1 and 2 free to base, veins 

 8 and 7 (costal and subcostal) diverging from a common stem at the 

 extreme base ; antennse moderate, simple ; tongue short ; thorax mode- 

 rately clothed with fine short hair ; abdomen moderately stout, slightly 

 exceeding the posterior wings, smooth, not crested ; palpi slight, hardly 

 exceeding the front; legs moderate, evenly clothed with short pubes- 

 cence, hind tibia3 with four moderately stout spurs. 



I erect this genus for a delicate Noctuid belonging to M. Boisduval's 

 Ife.liofhidf€, the ornamentation of which is peculiar and different from 

 anything I have yet met with in the Noctuina. The ordinary spots 

 and lines are absent except the transverse posterior line which is indi- 

 cated by the difference of coloring between the median and subtermi- 

 nal spaces and by a series of white dots on the veins. At the outer 

 extremity of the diseal space, at the base of vein 5, is a small neatly 

 defined I'ounded ocellus with a whitish center, aunulated with reddish, 

 and a second, larger, and with a blackish center, is situated on the 

 median vein anterior to its furcation ; these ocelli at first sight seem to 

 indicate a corresponding vein structure, which, on denuding the wing 

 of scales, is seen not to be the case. 



The pterogostic structure resembles that of Aiifhoecia {inarglnata) ; 

 the subcostal cell is broader at the middle and vein 4 is not so near 8 

 at its base ; the tongue is shorter, wings relatively broader than in 

 Anthuecia. 



The eyes in the dried specimen are ornamented with petal-sliaped 

 marks, diverging, like radii, from a common center. 



