10 BULLETIN 38, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



To Agrotis I refer those species which have armed fore tibia?,, smooth 

 front mixed or scaly vestiture and pectinated male antenna?. The Euro- 

 pean segetum is the generic type. Of our own species, ypsilon most 

 nearly resembles the type in habitus. 



Peridroma has the male antennte simple, the fore wings trigonate, 

 regularly widening from base, the apices marked, outer margin oblique. 

 Saucia is the generic type. 



Two groups are recognized in this genus. The first, of which saucia 

 is also type, has the primaries quite strongly produced apically and has 

 a divided thoracic tuft ; the second, of which incivis is typical, has the 

 primaries less produced apically and has no divided thoracic tuft. 



Noctua, of which, among our own species, normaniana may be con- 

 sidered typical, differs from Agrotis in having the primaries more 

 abruptly widening near base, the apices and outer margin rounded or 

 at most rectangular. 



Two groups may also be distinguished in the genus. The first, of 

 which normaniana is typical, has the second joint of palpi clavate, and 

 the ordinary transverse maculation is distinct; the second, of which 

 clandestina is typical, has the palpi equal throughout, while the trans- 

 verse maculation is Obsolete or confused. 



The remaining genera have the front rough, produced, or tuberculate. 



Chorizagrotis has the antenna? of the male simple or ciliate merely, 

 the primaries elongate, narrow, subequal and the abdomen depressed. 

 AuxiUaris is the generic type. 



Rhizagrotis has the i)rimaries normally trigonate in form and the 

 abdomen is not depressed. Gloanthoides may be considered the type. 

 The S antennre are simple. 



This genus is divisible into three groups. In the first, the macula- 

 tion is normal, not strigose, and the ordinary spots are distinct; ab- 

 normis is typical. In the second, the ordinary spots are more or less 

 obscured by longitudinally strigate marks, transverse lines when evi- 

 dent, single ; acelivis is typical. In the third, the ordinary spots are 

 more or less completely confluent, the maculation is longitudinally 

 strigose, the transverse lines arc wanting, and the colors are pale gray. 

 Gloanthoides is typical of this group as well as of the genus. 



The remaining genera have the male antenntie serrate and bristled 

 or pectinated, and resort must be had for a main division to the sexual 

 characters which here become very constant in type, varying within 

 narrow limits only. In the one division the clasper attached to the 

 harpes is a single, long, corneous hook or a shorter beak-like process; 

 in the other the clasper is distinctly bifurcate, the forks long and dis- 

 tinct. 



Two genera can be recognized in the first division. Feltia, of which 

 suhgothica is typical, has the primaries short and wide, the apices are 

 rounded, and the colors are usually dark. The form is robust and the 

 species are very compactly built. The male antennae are variable. Two 



