9; 



VII. A Study of North American Noctuidae 



BY AUO. R. GROTE. 

 [Head before this Society, July 2d, 1873.] 



In fho present Piipcr I have continued my observations on the 

 North Amei-ican Noctuidae, preliminary to tlie publication of a 

 List of the species Tipon which I have been for some time at Avork. 

 The species, referred by M. Guenee to Iladena and Mamestra, I 

 have now examined for the first time, with a view of testing the 

 generic determinations of the celebrated French entomologist. I 

 have found on a near study, that these species are not generically 

 separable on the characters laid down in the 8])ecies General, and Avhy 

 certain of the species are in tliat work referred to Mamestra instead 

 of Hadena, or the reverse, I have been unable to understand. 



I have then changed a number of M. Gueuee's generic determina- 

 tions and have suppressed certain genera where I have become sat- 

 isfied that the distinctions are not valid. It is difficult for the 

 American student at first to study this Group without the preju- 

 dices he involuntarily entertains from the works of those English 

 and French authors, in which alone he finds our species described. 

 It is impossible to arrive at any critical views on tlie subject withont 

 a study of certain German authorities, with whose generic concep- 

 tions, but more especially with whose manner of zoological thought, 

 we have not been sufficiently familiar. It will be of no use to 

 attempt to write upon our Moths, without a study of the writings 

 of Lederer, Zeller and Ilerrich-SchaefFer. To the latter we owe an 

 appreciation of the characters offered by the venation and its cor- 

 rect terminology; to the former the most conscientious and strict 

 classification that has yet been offered to the student.' 



' The student is also referred to the Annales de la Societ6 Entomologique Beige, for a number 

 of praiseworthy observations on the Moths, as well as to Dr. Speyer's work on the geograph- 

 ical distribution of the Lepidoptera of Germany and Switzerland. The former Society had the 

 honor of printing Lcderer's last coniinunication, "Contributions a la Faune dcs LtJpidoplcres 

 do la Transcaucasie." I need not say tliat tlie Wiener Entomologischc Slonatschrift is to the 

 student of to-day what the Wiener Verzeichuiss was to the student of the last century, nor that 

 every word written by Lederer will make itself remembered. 



