178 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxv. 



Expanse.— lAO to 1.75 iuches (35 to 41 mm). 



Habitat. — Canada to Florida, to Texas, to the Rocky Mountains; 

 New Mexico; Fort Collins, Colorado; Cartwright, Manitoba. 



This is the most common of the species and the most widely dis- 

 tributed. It extends into Mexico and South America, and in our own 

 country is of economic importance. The larva is the Army worm, 

 and the literature is extensive. In the third Report of the Entomo- 

 logical Commission, above cited, the bibliography is fully given to its 

 date. Since then it has been written about in almost every State in 

 which it occurs. 



The structural characters of the species are elsewhere referred to, 

 and it remains only to be said that the actual range of variation is not 

 great — chiefly a matter of lighter or darker. 



The species occurs throughout the year, but becomes most abundant 

 in September, when it often drives ofl' every other species from sugar. 



LEUCANIA PSEUDARGYRIA Guenee. 



Leucania pseudargyria Guenee, Spec. Gen., Noct., I, 1852, p. 74. — Caulfield, 

 Can. Ent., VI, 1874, p. 132, larva.— Speyer, Stett. Ent. Zeit., XXXVI, 1875, 

 p. 113.— French, Can. Ent., XIII, 1881, p. 24, larva. 



Mythimna pseudargyria Walker, C. B., Mus., Het., IX, 1856, p. 77. 



Leucania pseudargyria, var. callida Grote, New List, 1882, p. 30, note. 



Ground color grayish luteous, tending to reddish. Head sometimes 

 rusty brown in front and occasionally the inferior half of the collar is 

 also rusty; but usually it is concolorous. The little tuft behind the 

 collar is sometimes rusty, but more usually concolorous. Primaries 

 very finely speckled with smoky, blackish, or reddish. Transverse 

 anterior line often reduced to black points on the veins or black lunules 

 in the interspaces; when best defined the venular dots are obvious 

 and the outcurves in the interspaces are wide. Transverse posterior 

 line is usually a very even series of venular dots, almost rigidly parallel 

 with the outer margin; sometimes the line is geminate and an inner 

 line of dots parallels that already mentioned; but this inner line is 

 rarely complete and tends to become irregular. There is a series of 

 small terminal dots in the interspaces. The ordinary spots are both 

 obvious, paler than the rest of the wing, not outlined. Orbicular 

 round or nearly so, varying in size. Reniform moderate or rather 

 small, vagu» kidney shaped with a small black dot at the end of the 

 cell. The terminal area is slightly darker in most examples. Second- 

 aries from pale smoky to black, the fringes lighter, else nearly uni- 

 form. Beneath obscure smoky, yellowish, the primaries darker on 

 the disk, with a blackish costal spot from which a punctiform line 

 sometimes crosses the wing. Secondaries paler, sometimes immacu- 

 late, sometimes with a discal dot, and sometimes with a series of venu- 

 lar dots forming an exterior line. 



