AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 89 



Remarks on Korth American IVOCTUIDAE 

 with descriptions of l^ew Species. 



BY AUGUSTUS R. GROTE. 



AGROTIS, Htibner. 

 Agrotis Normanianns, Grote. 



S 9 . — This seems the species that is intended under the name oftri- 

 nngulum in tne " List of the Noctuidae of North America." I have 

 recently compared a fine series, taken by Mr. George Norman, with a 

 number of European specimens of friavgulum, part of which I owe to 

 the kindness of my esteemed friend Professor P. C. Zeller. I have no 

 question that our American species is distinct and Mr. Norman, who 

 is of the opinion, thinks that there is a certain resemblance in our in- 

 sect to the European (■{■) depuncta. The general appearance and 

 style of markings of the two species, triangulum and Normanianuf, 

 is very similar. On a comparison of the male antennae, they seem 

 more heavily bristled in the American species. The subterminal 

 space anteriorly and the terminal space are darker shaded and con- 

 trast in Norma iiianus. There is a less general evenness of color on 

 the primaries in our species, which wants the dark brown shade suc- 

 ceeding the basal half line on the sub-basal space. The ground color 

 is more ashen, shaded and tinted with rose-brown. The geminate 

 lines are narrower, the component lines equally marked. The t. p. 

 line is less prominently lunulated inwardly. The orbicular is less tri- 

 angulate, being more obliquely quadrate, owing to an angle being formed 

 opposite to the reniform, this latter shorter and narrower than in the 

 European form. The pre-apical black shade spot on the costal region 

 before the subterminal line is single in Normanianus. The hind wings 

 and undersurftice are similar in the two species, but Normanianus is 

 better marked and has the common line notably sinuate inferiorly ou 

 the hind wings; it is the smaller species, expanding 35-36 m.m. 

 Worn specimens are of a dingy ocherous or olivaceous ashen, having 

 lost the rosy tintings. 



Canada, Eastern and Middle States. Imago in July and August. 



Agrotis triangulum is cited in my list as American ou the authority 

 of Mr. Walker. This author has made several analogous determina- 

 tions which will have to be probably corrected when we become ac- 

 quainted with the European species. In the genus Agrotis we have 

 determined American species under the names Agrotis C-nigrum, plecta , 

 haja, fennica, con/lua, saucia, and s^ffusa, after a comparison with 

 European specimens, and in these instances we can find no difi'erences 



TRANS. AMER. ENT. SOC. (12) SEPTEMBER, 1874, 



