AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 353 



Agrotis violaris, n. sp. (Plate 7, fig. 59, % .) 



S . Size moderate; form rather stout. Violet-ashen. Head and 

 thorax violaceous ashen, frosted with pale scales. Labial palpi with 

 darker scales beneath. The scales are somewhat massed on the front 

 and between the antennae ; these latter dark testaceous, bi-serrate, the 

 serratures diminishing toward the tips. Abdomen, under surface of 

 thorax, and legs ashen, the latter darker outwardly, with sub-annulate 

 tarsi ; hind tibiae strongly four-spurred, the pale spurs marked cen- 

 trally with black. 



Anterior wings with simple and distinct ornamentation, violet ashen, 

 appearing as if overlaid with pale scales and sparsely irrorate with 

 dark points. From the reniform spot to transverse posterior line the 

 median space is darker colored than the wing elsewhere, the pale over- 

 lying scales which extend from the base outwardly to this place be- 

 coming obsolete. The basal half-line is wanting, and merely indicated 

 by costal marks. Transverse anterior line very prominent, geminate 

 and distinct; its outer component line is broad, dark brownish and 

 very evident; its inner, obsolete, but marked on costa; the outer line 

 is seemingly preceded by a pale shade (the ground color of the wing 

 free from irroratious) which in reality is the usual inehidcd interspace 

 of the line. The course of the transverse anterior line is very deter- 

 minate. It is angulated below costa, thence continued straightly and 

 perpendicularly downwards till below the internal nervure (vein 1, 

 Il-S.), when it is again correspondingly outwardly and rather more 

 prominently angulated. The median space is unusually wide. The 

 orbicular spot is of the ground color of the wing, with a very narrow 

 and partially incomplete dark brownish annulus. Reniform prominent, 

 but slightly constricted, narrowly circled with dark brown and with a 

 pale ochreouswhite internal annulus, more or less distinct. ed<'ino- 

 the dark centre which is concolorous with the dark posterior portion 

 of the median space. The median shade is wanting. Transverse pos- 

 terior line very evenly arcuate, slightly projected over the nervules, 

 thence running slightly inwardly to internal margin; it is even, not 

 deutated or lunulated, slightly notched at costa. It is geminate; its 

 inner component line the darker and most distinct, narrower than the 

 outer line of the transverse anterior; its outer line is faint and the 

 space included is of the pale ground color of the wing, free from irro- 

 rations. The subterminal space is darker shaded than the terminal 

 but paler than the median space posteriorly; along its outer edge the 

 irregular subterminal line is indicated. Terminal line very faintly 



TUANS. AMER. ENT. SOC. (45) JANUARY, 1868. 



