12 GROTE — SEARCH FOR THE TYPE OF NOCTUA LINX. [Jan. 3, 



gothica (!), C. nigrum, triangulum, flammatra, musiva, plecta, 

 punicea. He remarks : der Rlicken hat einen Schopf. In the main 

 this seems to be the group intended by Prof. J. B. Smith as Noctua, 

 but it cannot include either pronuba or segetum. Meigen places 

 the latter correctly under the subgenus Agrotis, but classifies 

 pronuba under the distinct genus " Tryphaena " section A, which 

 he characterizes as having the third palpal joint reduced, hardly 

 noticeable. It does not seem as though subjective opinion would 

 ever rest content with the reference oi pronuba as congeneric with 

 segetum, and therefore the question of the genus Noctua need not 

 affect the North American Catalogue, 



At the present time the study of the Noctuids in America is 

 suffering under the evil duplication of specific names and a reckless 

 disregard of the historically indicated types of the generic titles. 

 In this connection may I ask how Noctua comes to be applied to the 

 group in Prof. Smith's Revision, except by a kind of restriction? 

 For Linne's original Phalaena Noctua contains insects belonging to 

 several distinct families and only by some sort of literary precedent 

 has it come to designate Owlet Moths or Noctuids. The same sort 

 of historical research, only carried out with more exactness, reveals 

 the types I must insist upon for certain genera. And, unless it can 

 be shown, in any special instance, that I have erred (the study has 

 often proved intricate), it will be clearly to the advantage of science 

 that my results be adopted in the new N. Am. Catalogue. I now 

 give here references I have made and the types which they reveal : 



MAMESTRA. 

 1816. OcHSENH., Schm. Em\, iv, 76. 



Fisif splendens, oleracea, suasa, aliena, abjecta, chenopodii, albi- 

 colon, brassicae, furva, persicarise. 



1816. HuEBNER, Verz.y 214. 



Pisi, unaminis, leucophsea. Under this restriction pisi became 

 type, since Hlibner's two other species are not included originally. 



(March) 1829. Duponchel, Hist. Nat. Lep. Noct.y T. iv, Pt. 2, 71. 



Designates brassicae as type, but this restriction of Mamestra is 

 no longer possible since Hiibner's action in the Verzeichniss. 

 Hlibner must have taken this generic name from Ochsenheimer, 



