8 BULLETIN 38, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



of ideutifj iug a number of species, some of which were loaued me for 

 further study by Dr. Thaxter. Mrs. Fernald's collection at Orouo was 

 also studied, aud to Professor and Mrs. Fernald I owe thanks for kindly 

 hospitality as well as free opportunity to study the material in the col- 

 lection. Dr. Lintner also allowed me to use some of his material not 

 otherwise attainable. I had thus an opportunity to study all the types 

 existing in these collections, and my descriptions and studies were 

 largely made from the original types or carefully compared specimens. 

 Dr. Bailey's collection has some uniques, and the doctor, then on what 

 proved his death-bed, courteously loaued me these for study. The 

 material then, upon which the work was originally based was not scant, 

 aud I owe to Dr. Riley the opportunity to visit all these collections and 

 to the courtesy of the gentlemen named, as well as to others not named 

 but gratefully remembered, the opportunity to study their material. 

 At that time it was intended to publish a complete monograph of the 

 noctuidai by Dr. Riley and myself, and the manuscript as ])repared by me 

 was sent to Dr. Riley for completion by the addition of the biologic 

 material and the addition of such studies as had been made by him in 

 some of the groups. Circumstances prevented the carrying out of 

 the original plans,-and the publication of a complete monographic work 

 was finally abandoned. In 1887 I published in the Proceedings of the 

 XJ. S. National Museum descriptions of the new species which I had 

 found in my original work. More recently large collections made in 

 California produced numerous new species, necessitating re-arrange- 

 ment, and to some extent th-e re- writing of a great portion of the man- 

 uscript. Some twenty-three of these species were published in the 

 Transactions of the American Entomological Society for 1890, and 

 scarcely were they in type when another accumulation of material 

 turned up still further species. During the month of January, 1890, 

 I arranged, under Dr. Riley's direction, a large part of the noctuid col- 

 lection of the National Museum, and on that occasion deposited a num- 

 ber of my types in that collection. 



The collection of the Museum in this genus now stands second to none 

 in completeness. By far the greater number of species are represented, 

 many of them by very fine series of bred specimens. 



No bibliographical review of the genus will be here attempted, and 

 after this brief history of my work aud the material at command, I will 

 proceed at once to outline my scheme of classification. 



Primarily the species divide into two series upon the armature of the 

 anterior tibire. In the first series the member is not at all spinose, in 

 the second the member is spinose, the armature variable. 



Rkynchagrotis is applied to a series of species in which the antenn?B 

 of both sexes are simple or merely ciliated in the male. The thorax 

 aud abdomen are depressed, the primaries subequal in most cases, the 

 apices rectangular or rounded, the outer margin rounded or scarcely 

 oblique. The palpi tend to form, and in most cases do form, a distinct 



