AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 47 



COMTRIBUTIOIVS TOWARD A MONOGRAPH OF THE 

 BfOCTUID^ OF BOREAL. l^ORTH AMERICA. 



REVISION OF THE SPECIES OP ACONTIA Ocbs. 

 BY JOHN B. SMITH, SC.D. 



Acontia, proposed by Ochsenheimer in " Die Schmetterlinge von 

 Europe," IV, 91, 1816, is characterized essentially as follows: 

 Medium sized species, with broad thoracic disc densely clothed with 

 flattened scales, scutellum very large, inflated and extended over the 

 Urst abdominal segment. Abdomen short, slender. Wings short 

 and broad,- greatly widened outwardly, primaries obtuse at the tip; 

 secondaries rounded, with stout veins, 5 somewhat weaker. Head, 

 breast, legs, abdomen and palpi closely scaled, the latter curved 

 over the front, terminal joint obtuse. Eyes comparative large, glo- 

 bose and naked. Tongue spiral, moderate or strong. Antennse 

 simple in both S5xes. 



Our own species fit this description in a very general way only, 

 the large number of species in our fauna showing variations in 

 structure not paralleled in the poorer European fauna. 



The eyes are naked, moderate in size ; head moderate, closely 

 applied to thorax but not retracted ; its front flat, convex, inflated, 

 protuberant, couically produced, with a small rounded truncate tip, 

 drawn out into a flat process with a chisel-like tip, rough or smooth. 

 As a rule the front is convex or moderately protuberant, in the 

 latter case generally a little roughened. Palpi oblique, usually not 

 exceeding the middle of the front. Antennae and tongue as de- 

 .scribed. Thorax as described, save that the inflated scutellum 

 varies and is sometimes scarcely noticeable. Sometimes an obvious 

 though hardly proniinent scale tuft prevents the ready recognition 

 of this feature. Legs as described. Abdomen as described. 



The wings vary considerably in form. Types like aprica agree 

 rather well with the European forms. They vary to a more pointed, 

 longer form as in candefacta, the hind angle being sometimes a little 

 marked. A few species have them quite long and narrow as in 

 laaceolata, aar/usUpetmis, etc. The venation also tends to become 

 variable. In the primaries the accesory cell may be present or 

 absent in one species {candefacta), but usually the normal noetuid 



TRA^fS. AM. KNT. SOC, XXVII. .SEPTEMBER, 1900. 



