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66 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



science about which something seems to be known. Many of the writers 

 of the present decade also seem to find their greatest deUght in accusing 

 those whose misfortune it is not to agree with them, of ignorance, either 

 of the literature of the subject, or of anatomy, or something else equally 

 heinous. A knowledge of the literature of the subject is, I admit, an 

 accomplishment not everyone can boast of, but a knowledge of the 

 anatomy of a Noctuid is a thing that any one can acquire in a very short 

 time. All this has nothing particular to do with generic characters, but it 

 was necessary to say a few words to explain why the following dissertation 

 was written, and I will now proceed with my subject. 



A good, concise definition of the group Noduidce, which shall include 

 all the forms belonging to it, and exclude everything not so referable, is 

 still one of the desiderata, and I am not able at present to supply it. As 

 good a one as it is possible to get within a short space is the following 

 from the preface of my synopsis of the genera : 



The Noctuidse are as a rule robust, seldom slightly built moths, with 

 comparatively small, stiff wings, which, except in Tortricodes bifidalis, are 

 entire \ the ocelh are nearly always present, and the wings have simple 

 discal cells, two free veins at inner margin of secondaries (counted as one 

 by the German Entomologists), and one at inner margin of primaries; the 

 latter usually have also an accessory cell at the upper angle of the discal, 

 sometimes separated from it by a short stalk. The antennae are bristle- 

 form, generally simple in the female and pectinate or ciliate in the male. 



Commencing at the head, the characters used in generic divisions are 

 as follows : 



The eyes, as to clothing, are either entirely naked, naked and fringed 

 above and below, and sometimes at the sides, with hairy or bristly lashes, 

 or entirely hairy — a single hair usually arising from the angles of the 

 facets of the compound eye. These differences have a very great generic 

 value, and two genera separated only by one or the other of these char- 

 acters would be valid. 



In form the eyes are either hemispherical and very strongly convex, 

 rounded and somewhat flattened, elongate oval, or reniform. The degree 

 of convexity or the size have no, or only a slight, generic value, but an 

 insect with reniform eyes would be generically distinct from a round- 

 eyed one. 



The ocelli are usually present, but are lacking in a few genera ; in this 

 group lack of ocelli suffices for generic separation. When present they 



