510 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 112 



Poaphila irrecta Walker, 1865: Walker did not know the source 

 or original locality of the specimen that he described under this name. 

 Fletcher has examined the type in the British Museum (Natural 

 History) and states in correspondence that it is a brown female of the 

 form named geometralis by Grote. Therefore, if the brown form is 

 to be recognized by the application of a form name, irrecta Walker 

 would have priority. Smith (1893) treated this name as a synonym 

 of pyralis Hiibner. 



Apicia denticulata Walker, 1866 : Type locality "Georgia." Fletcher 

 has also examined the type of this species, likewise in the British 

 Museum (Natural History) and has informed me that is it also a female 

 of the brown form. I therefore place this name in the synonomy of 

 scopulepes. 



Coptocnemia floccalis Zeller, 1872: Type locality "Texas." De- 

 scribed from a single male stated to be in the "Cambridger Museum" 

 (Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, Cambridge, 

 Mass.). It is clear from the original description and illustrations that 

 his name is a synonym of scopulepes, and it was treated by Smith 

 (1891) as a synonym of H. pyralis Hiibner. 



Pleonectyptera geometralis Grote, 1872: Described from a single 

 female from Central Alabama in June. Grote compared it with 

 specimens of H. pyralis Hiibner taken at the same locality in July 

 and stated that geometralis was "reddish fawn" to the postmedial lines. 

 The type is in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. 



Misspelling: Stephens (1829) inserted an "a" after the "1" and 

 thus made the name "scopulaepes" and has been followed in this 

 action by all subsequent writers. He did not discuss the change, but 

 in any event I follow the original spelling, "scopulepes." On plate 

 94 of Seitz (1940-46?) the specific name is spelled "scopelopes." 

 Since the text referrable to this plate has not been published, the 

 name, if an original proposal, has no status. 



Distribution: This species is known to occur from North Carolina 

 (Raleigh) and Arkansas (Carrol County), through Central America, 

 the Caribbean, and South America, to Argentina (Misiones), but it 

 has not been reported from Puerto Rico. It was not present in a 

 large collection of Noctuidae from that island recently studied by the 

 author. The apparent absence of the species in Puerto Rico suggests 

 that the species reached Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola from the 

 north and the Lesser Antilles from the south. 



Hemeroplanis aurora (Walker) 



Figures 2, 5; Plate 1, Figures 7-8 



Thcrmesia aurora Walker, 1865, List of the specimens of lepidopterous insects in 

 the collection of the British Museum, pt. 33, p. 1039. 



