AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 3.S9 



Family Noctuidae. 

 AEZAMA, Walker. 

 Arzama obliquata, n. sp. (Plate 6, fig. 47, 9 •) 



9 . Wood-brown and hoary. Head, sunken ; front clothed with 

 thick dark, wood-brown squauiation. Antennae testaceous beneath, 

 with a double row of short serratures increasing in length before the 

 tips, towards which they again diminish. The antennal stem is white 

 or whitish along its upper surfiice. The maxillae ar^ weak, short, tes- 

 taceous. Legs, short and closely scaled ; hind tibiae with two unequal 

 spurs on the inner side of the joint. The inferior thoracic squamation 

 is loose and long, pale wood-brown, becoming hoary laterally beneath 

 the insertion of the wings. The legs are more or less dark wood-brown, 

 especially the anterior pair ; tarsi and tibiae smoothly scaled, while the 

 short femora are furnished with long lateral hairs. Above, the pro- 

 thoracic pieces are broad and well defined, pale wood-brown, concolor- 

 ous with the thorax, shading to hoary along their posterior edge. Here 

 the collar appears somewhat elevate, its pale posterior shading being 

 thrown into relief by the very dark scales which seem to issue from be- 

 neath it. The patagia and thoracic disc are concolorous, shading to hoary 

 behind, where there is a central tuft tipped with brighter brown. Two 

 lateral fan-shaped metathoracic tufts spread from the sides towards 

 each other, over the extreme base of the abdomen centrally. Thorax 

 short and square. Abdomen long, exceeding prominently the secon- 

 daries, stout and cylindrical, swelling towards the anus, which is thick- 

 ly clothed with dense hair concealing the genitals. 



Anterior wings elongate ; costa straight, rising very slightly before 

 the apices which are a little depressed ; external margin suboblique, a 

 little rounded towards internal angle ; internal margin straight. The 

 primaries are wood-brown, with shaded linear markings all taking a 

 transverse, inwardly oblique course from the costa downwards. There 

 is a prominent, pale hoary basal patch, distinctly limited outwardly by 

 a very oblique dark shaded line which arises within the costa on the 

 subcostal nervure at about basal third, and runs inwardly to internal 

 margin near the base of the wing. A very oblique transverse elongate 

 reniform spot at extremity of the cell, pale, with an internal spot formed 

 by an irregular brown annulus. A narrow, regularly inwardly lunu- 

 late, dark, powdery, transverse posterior line, becoming obsolete to- 

 wards the costa. Three pale ante-apical costal dots. Terminal space 

 dark greyish, limited inwardly by the sinuate subterminal line. A 

 narrow even terminal dark brown line borders the external maro'in 

 arising on costa before the apex and being neatly continued to internal 



