NORTH AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 41 



Descriptions of some new species of AGROTIS Auct. 



BY JOHN B. SMITH. 



Agrotis abnorinis sp. nov. — The general color is carneous gray, variably 

 shaded or suffused with a more reddish tint. Palpi brown at sides; a broad 

 blackish transverse band at base of collar. Primaries with basal line present, 

 geminate, black, dentate. T. a. line geminate brown or blackish, the inner line 

 faint, included space paler in dark specimens, concolorous in pale examples; up- 

 right, outwardly angulate below costa, in the submedian interspace, and again 

 below the internal vein. T. p. line single, or with the outer part of geminate 

 line indicated only by a dusky costal spot and a short dusky shade, its course 

 outcurved over, and very close to reniform, then very evenly parallel to outer 

 margin. S. t. line very slightly paler, outwardly angulated on veins 3 and 6, 

 emphasized by a distinct dusky preceding shade, which in pale specimens some- 

 times becomes the most prominent feature. A narrow, interrupted, dark terminal 

 line. Claviform very faintly indicated by a few dark scales. Orbicular well 

 sized, oval, oblique, sometimes not completely defined posteriorly, narrowly black 

 ringed, concolorous in pale specimens, paler in darker examples. Reniform nar- 

 rowly black ringed, of the gray ground color with a more leaden gray filling, 

 prominent inferiorly. Secondaries of the usual dirty gray-brown, somewhat 

 paler in the male, discal spot evident. Beneath powdery fuscous, paler in the 

 male, with distinct, though sometimes interrupted outer line and an evident 

 discal spot on all wings. Expands 1.37—1.50 inches; 34—37 mm. 



Habitat. — Sierra Nevada, Cal. (McGlashan). 



The structural characters are : fore tibise armed, clypeus tubercu- 

 hite, antenntfi of male simple, ciliate; abdomen not depressed. The 

 present species is the only one under this catagory in which the 

 normal Noctuid maculation is present without longitudinal strigse, 

 and the species really seems at first sight allied to some of the tessel- 

 lata group. The genital structure is not, however, typical of that 

 group, the short branch of the clasper being absent. The simply 

 ciliate, scarcely serrate male antennse are unusual associates for the 

 other characters. 



Several specimens; types with Mr. Edwards and in the college 

 collection. 



Agrotis erratica sp. nov.— General color dull ashen gray to brick red, 

 smooth and dense in appeai-auce. Palpi dark at side. Head and thorax immacu- 

 late. Primaries very evenly clothed, the lines not much darker and not promi- 

 nently relieved. Basal line indistinct geminate. T. a. line geminate, the lines 

 very narrow, faint, outwardly oblique, not very much angulated. T. p. line rather 

 regularly outcurved, geminate, inner line narrow, broken below vein 3; outer 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC. XVII. (6) .JANUARY, 1890. 



