226 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxv. 



forming' obtuse teeth ; very oblique below vein 4, more or less irregu- 

 lar but never forming long or sharp outward dents. The median 

 space may or may not be crossed by 2 or 3 very oblique shade lines 

 at or before the middle, and there may or may not be a darker brown 

 shade over the costal region. In the male there is more or less blue 

 powdering just be} 7 ond the t. a. line. Orbicular a small brown dot 

 which may or may not be obvious. Reniform oblique, lunate, dusky, 

 not outlined, outwardly marked by a few white scales. S. t. line 

 very incomplete, usually distinct only below vein 4, whence it makes 

 a slight incurve, is accompanied by a pale outer line and followed, in 

 the female, by a conspicuous blackish brown band ; in the male this 

 band may be traversed by a line of lilac blue scales and sometimes 

 the entire lower portion of the terminal area is blue filled. Above 

 vein 4 the s. t. line is very obscurely traceable to vein 7, above which 

 the s. t. space is dark filled and forms an edging to the line. When 

 this dark filling is not well marked the line itself becomes obscure or 

 lost. There is usually a dusky apical spot and, in the male, there 

 may be an edging of bine scales outside of the line, or the terminal 

 area may be washed with blue, forming in the best marked cases 

 two blue lunate marks, separated in the middle of the wing by a 

 brown shade which extends to the outer margin. There is a more or 

 less obvious brown terminal line, and the pale fringes have a dusky 

 interline. Secondaries a little paler at base, followed by a series of 

 alternate pale and dusky discal shade lines. A very slender blackish 

 line continues the s. t. line across the secondaries, and beyond that a 

 better marked line, which is more or less outcurved in the inter- 

 spaces, extends with a slight incurve approximately from apex tc 

 anal angle. Beyond this, in the female, there is a blackish-brown 

 shade band which, in the male, becomes blue edged, or the entire 

 terminal area may be washed with blue. Beneath more yellowish, 

 strigillate, and powdered, with a large dark discal lnnnle. a hinnlate 

 extra-median line, and an obscure, diffuse outer shade on all wings. 



Expands, 1.72-2.20 inches=43-55 mm. 



Habitat. — Throughout the United States, from Canada to Florida, 

 west to the Rocky Mountains, into Texas and Arizona, at dates rang- 

 ing from March to December. 



This is perhaps the most common of our species and the most 

 widely distributed. It is also the largest and the principal late 

 autumn species. None of the specimens in my hands are spring 

 examples except a few from Texas, which may be hibernates, and by 

 far the greater number are in September and later. Minerea is typ- 

 ically a spring species and few examples hold on into July. Where 

 these two occur together, minerea has usually disappeared before 

 lunata makes its appearance. The two may resemble each other very 

 closely, especially in the female, and I have found them mixed in 



