AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 187 



Family, NOCTUIDAE. 

 HELIOTHIS, (Mis. 

 HeliotMs phloxiphaga, n. s. 



Heliothis umhrosus, Grote, Riley, Prairie Farmer, (with figs.) 1867. 



% 9 . Head and thorax, above, olivaceous-ochreous. Beneath, the 

 under thoracic surface and legs are pale ochreous, the latter with a 

 brighter, somewhat pale reddish tinge outwardly; hind tibiae with 

 four slender, subequal spurs. Abdomen, above, ochreous, with an oli- 

 vaceous shade; beneath of a paler ochreous, shaded with a brighter 

 hue (as on the legs outwardly) laterally, and over the anal segment 

 and tuft. Antennae, simple. 



Anterior wings, above, pale ochreous, with an olivaceous tinge. A 

 basal black half-line. On the costa at basal third a black spot, be- 

 neath which, on median and internal nervures, are minute black dots 

 not readily perceived. A black dot on the discal cell. A broad, dark 

 olivaceous ochreous band is drawn inwardly obliquely over the wing 

 at about the middle. This is limited on either side superiorly by op- 

 posedly arcuate series of black dots where it encloses the reniform spot 

 as a diffuse blackish spot. Its course is here straight, but below the 

 median nervure it runs inwardly obliquely, and is margined on either 

 side by faintly darker lines, widening towards the margin. Between 

 this band and the base, the wing is pale ochreous, but owing to 

 the course of the median band, this paler basal space is wider on costal 

 region above median nervure and narrows to internal margin. The 

 median band is succeeded by the pale ground color, which obtains 

 from the costa downwards, biit is encroached on by a second broad 

 shade band analogous to the median band, but paler, more diffuse and 

 longer, and which arises on the costa (where it is darkest and includes 

 two whitish, costal hair dots) at near the apex and, widening as it pro- 

 ceeds, spreads on internal margin from the angle to the first median 

 band, from which latter it is separated by its inner marginal line. 

 This latter line is faint and irregularly and roundedly dentate superi- 

 orly on the interspaces; here its outward inflections attain a series of 

 minute, black nervular dots ; the two last and most widely separated 

 of these are included in the band since this here widens, and its inner 

 marginal line, attaining the first band, runs more evenly and within 

 them. The pale ground color of the wing obtains beyond the second 

 transverse shade band as a narrow terminal space. " A terminal black 

 line, broadly interrupted over the nervules ; fringes, glistening, some- 

 what blackish, darker than the wing. Beneath, pale ochreous. Two 

 large, black, discal spots, of which the first is spherical and smaller, 



