AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 24o 



appearance of Heh'aea, differing however by the vestiture which in 

 Annaphifa is scaly. 



MELICLEPTB1A, lib. 



Eyes naked, small, ovate ; head small, retracted, buried in the hairy 

 vestiture of the thorax ; palpi very short, slight, heavily fringed beneath ; 

 front full, but not bulging ; body stout, proportionately heavy, clothed 

 with thin divergent hair, usually of a paler color than body and some- 

 what silky ; primaries with more or less depressed costa and produced 

 apex ; tibiae spinose ; anterior abbreviated, broadened at tip, with usually 

 a moderate claw at inner, and a shorter claw at outer side of tip ; some- 

 times also one or more additional claws at outer side ; claws of tarsi 

 simple or but slightly dentate ; abdomen conic, untufted, with ovipositor 

 of 9 extruded. 



The type of this genus cardtti, and its near ally cognata, of Europe 

 are placed by Lederer in He/iothis, and so also Staudinger in his list 

 catalogues them. They seem to me to be decidedly distinct from that 

 genus by the ovate eyes, retracted head, thin silky vestiture, abbreviated 

 and differently armed anterior tibiae, and by the much smaller primaries. 

 with the apex more produced and costa more depressed than in He/io- 

 this. 



Of the species placed by Lederer in his second group with ovipositor 

 of 9 not extruded is ononis, of which Melicleptria oregona, Hy. Edw., 

 is a synonym. This differs from all the others in that section known to 

 me by the ovate eyes. It cannot be placed in the present genus, because 

 the anterior tibia is not abbreviated and is entirely unarmed at tip, not 

 even having terminal spines. It seems to find a place most properly be-' 

 tween the two without belonging strictly to either, and I have therefore 

 placed it in a preceeding genus, where its affinities and those of its con- 

 geners are more fully discussed. 



The species placed in the present genus fall into two rather well- 

 marked divisions by the form of the primaries. Some having them nar- 

 row and small as in cardui, while others have them broader and more 

 ample, resembling the following genus or Heliothis. The armature of 

 suetus also of which I have examined the type, differs from that of car- 

 dui (PI. VII, fig. 43), but the remaining characters are the same, and 

 this difference in armature authorizes a section of the genus only. 



Adonisea, Grt., is a synonym of this genus. Careful examination 

 fails to reveal any generic difference whatever, and the somewhat wider 

 wings only separate it from cardui and allies, but bring it nearer to other 

 species in the genus. The armature of the anterior tibia is practically 



