256 REVISION OF MAMESTRA — SMITH. 



margin close to the t. a. line. S. t. line pale, irregular, hardly traceable ; 

 a pale spot near internal angle. Ordinary spots concolorous, subequal, 

 almost lost in the dusky ground color. Olaviform indicated by a dusky 

 blotch on t. a. line. Secondaries blackish outwardly, with base paler. 

 Beneath, fuscous gray, powdery. Head and thorax concolorous with 

 l^rimaries. 



Expands 23™'" (.92 inch.). 



Habitat. — Colorado. Collected by Bruce. 



This little species is easily recognized by the V-shaped median space, 

 beyond which the wing isjialer and with a reddish tint interiorly. The 

 ordinary spots are i)ractically obsolete. 



There is a possibility that even this striking form is only an extreme 

 offshoot from the olivacea stock, though I have nothing to indicate that 

 it is at all likely, except the identity of the male sexual characters. 



Group LAUDABILIS. 



The species referable to this group agree in small size and, except in 

 lorea, pale or gray ground color, with more or less yellow or reddish 

 maculation, some forms being very pretty. They are rather stoutly 

 built, the wings are rather small, obtuse ; in cuneata and lorea rather 

 wider than in the others. The thorax and the abdomen dorsally and 

 laterally are more or less evidently tufted. The chief character drawing 

 together the species is in the male genitalia. The harpes are elongate, 

 very slender, and rather gradually dilated at tip. Inwardly the tip is 

 produced somewhat acutely, and, except in lorea, it is more or less trun- 

 cate. The clasper is short, stout, corneous, hook like. The species are, 

 some of them, very closely related, and judgment is required in placing 

 single specimens where the genitalia are not examined. 



Lorea is separable at once by its yellow-red color. In this it is peculiar, 

 and, with its single transverse lines, the t. p. very evenly oblique, it is 

 a readily recognizable form. 



Incurva and A:-lineaia are distinguished by white secondaries in both 

 sexes. They are separable by the course of the t. p. line, which, in 

 incto'va, is drawn in beneath the reniform, and rather even, while in 

 4t-lineala it is lunulate and oblique. The latter is a decidedly variable 

 species, and in some of its forms is very like laudabilis or marinitincta ; 

 but it is always recognizable by its white secondaries. 



The sexual characters are those of the group, the tip of the harpes 

 truncate, vejy little produced inwardly. The clasper is very stout, some- 

 what beak-like. 



The remainder of the species have fuscous or soiled secondaries. 



Laudabilis is always of some shade of green for the ground color, but 

 that is the only character of ornamentation that is constant. The lines 

 vary in situation, in degree of distinctness, somewhat also in course, 

 and the color of the median space is alike in scarcely two specimens of 

 the large series before me. It is a beautiful insect. Besides the green 

 color, the genitalia are constant, and at onee distinguish the form. The 



