AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 6 



crested. Albilunata is a pale, reddish luteous species from the 

 West, in which the reniform is a slender white lunule. The median 

 lines are even, slender and whitish. 



V-album is an eastern and southern species, of a rich, deep wine 

 red or brown, the median lines slender, irregular and brown, and 

 the reniform outlined inferiorly in white, so as to form 11 V or U, 

 from which the name is derived. These two species have nothing 

 in common except the general wing-form and build, and in the 

 structure of the male genitalia they differ entirely. 



In albilunata there is an oblique, broad harpe fringed at the tip 

 by a row of spinules. There are two claspers; one of them toward 

 the base very strongly curved, so as to form almost a semicircle ; 

 the other much longer, stouter, only a little curved and reaching 

 almost to the end o he harpe. There is nothing inconsistent with 

 the general tend of genital structure in this. In u-album the harpes 

 are very broad at the base, forming almost a square plate, which 

 abruptly narrows to half its width and terminates in a drawnout 

 inferior angle. The clasper is a very broad, short process, narrowing 

 rapidly to an acute tip, situated at the point where the harpe is 

 suddenly narrowed. None other of the species in this series has a 

 similar structure. 



Velata forms a section by itself, with its narrow, pointed prima- 

 ries, which have the outer margin distinctly scalloped. In color it 

 is a deep, smoky brown, somewhat mottled, and the ordinary spots 

 are narrowly outlined by pale scales — a unique character in the 

 genus, by which this species may be at all times recognized. The 

 male genitalia are hadeniform in type, the harpes rather abruptly 

 bent, the tip somewhat broadened and fringed with spinules. There 

 is a slender, straight, pointed process at about the middle; but the 

 main clasper is a large, stout, blunt corneous hook, which is only a 

 little curved and twisted and reaches beyond the tip of the harpes. 



Three species, which have in the past been considered as identical 

 with the European nictitans, agree in trigonate pointed primaries, 

 which are in general a shade of brick-red and in which the outer 

 margin is even. In general maculation all are alike, having all the 

 usual lines and spots, and none of them strongly contrasting. The 

 lines are a deeper shade of red brown and the t. p. is geminate ; the 

 inner portion crenulate or lunate, the outer even. The ordinary 

 spots may be yellow, white or concolorous within the limits of the 

 same species; but there are no other white shadings. 



TRANS. AM. KNT. SOC. XXVI. MAY. 1899. 



