NORTH AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 185 



lique apical streak. There are two or three light and dark, somewhat wavy sub- 

 termiual shade lines, which do not reach the costa. Of these the outer is black 

 and is ontwardly margined with white scales. Secondaries pale gray with dark 

 blackish brown median and submarginal bauds. The fringes are all pale ashy 

 gray, cut with deeper gray. The under side of all the wings is ashy gray with 

 an ill-defined terminal band, a dentate central line on the secondaries, continued 

 on the primaries, all a little darker than the ground color. Expands 4 — 5 in. ; 

 100-125 mm. 



Hub. — Canada to Georgia ; westward to California. 



The supra-anal plate of the % genitalia is essentially like that of 

 chersU. The side piece is large, oval ; the elasper broad, flat, giving 

 (jff from the upper margin a very long, slender spur, pointed at tip ; 

 the terminal portion of main part of elasper is straight. There is 

 little variation in this species, except in size. There are everywhere 

 the same ashy gray color and the same longitudinal dashes. The 

 only variation is in the number of these. 



Mr. Edwards described the Californian form of the species as oreo- 

 daphne ; afterward he, himself, placed it as a variety ofchersis: then 

 it got back to the lists somehow as a good species, and Mr. Butler 

 said that if the form is local and constant it is entitled to a name. 

 Last of all Dr. Holland shows that it is not local and not constant, 

 and therefore not entitled to a name. 



I think, myself, that Dr. Holland is correct, and that the name 

 applies merely to a slight geographical variety of the same form. I 

 give, however, Mr. Edwards' original description, which will speak 

 for itself: 



"Thorax pale, ashy gray, slightly sprinkled with black hairs, and with a well 

 defined triangular black mark, the vertex of which rests on the prothorax, its 

 sides reaching to and joining the basal black demi-baud of the abdomen. The 

 area inclosed by the triangle is pale gray. Abdomen above, gray sjirinkled with 

 black, with narrow black dorsal line, and seven demi-bands of rich velvety 

 black, the basal one becoming almost circular in form, and uniting with the tri- 

 angular mark on the thoi-ax. Thorax and abdomen beneath wholly pale gray 

 as also are the legs, the tarsi being very faintly sprinkled with black. Primaries 

 wholly pale gray, with narrow black longitudinal lines, only slightly bent, the 

 two largest resting on the centre of the median nerve. Along the posterior mar- 

 gin is a whitish, irregular, submarginal band, not reaching to the internal angle. 

 Secondaries blackish fuscous, with two undulating white bauds, the outer one 

 not quite reaching to the apex. Fringes of primaries bi-owuish, sprinkled with 

 gray ; those of secondaries white, very indistinctly mottled with brown. 



The heavy armature of the fore tibia and tarsi is very much like 

 that of P. celeus, but in addition the fore and middle tibise are heavily 

 spinulose. 



The larva and pupa have been described quite fully by Mr. Lint- 

 ner in Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil, iii, 655. 



TRANS. AMER. KNT. SOC. XV. (24) AUGUST, 1888. 



