AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 257 



Remarks Upon the North American II I I.IO III I \ XI and 

 Their Recent Literature. 



BY A. R. GROTE. 



PREFACE. 



I was engaged in a study of the Ga/pinae (m.), Stiriinae (m.), 

 Plusiinae (m.), and HeUothinae (m.), contained in Mr. Neuraogen's 

 collection, my MMS. being in part in printer's hands, when a paper 

 appeared on the HeUothinae by Mr. John B. Smith, based partly on 

 specimens from Mr. Neumoegen's collection. It anticipated to some ex- 

 tent the changes I had found necessary since the publication of my new 

 Check List. He/. Lucens, which I stated in my List was not a Helwthis, 

 I had associated with Meadii. I found that I had not understood 

 Guenetj's genus Tam'tla and that its type was a Lygranthoecia. In fact 

 until now I had not examined it, or even possessed a specimen of nundina. 

 I found that the character of mixed scales and hair was shared by other 

 genera and that my Tamilae belonged to different genera. So far my 

 own discoveries went. Mr. Smith now farther interestingly shows us 

 that we have the European genera iSi/mpistis and Heliaca in our fauna, 

 and that the Oregona of our collections is the same as the European 

 Ononis. Omitting Anarta and Lepipo/ys, he rejects only four species 

 from the group as denned in the new Check List and adds two, placed 

 by me in the succeeding subfamily. 



The principal mistake which Mr. Smith makes is the assumption that 

 my Lists are monographic, and that I have reviewed all the genera and 

 species therein enumerated. A table of a part of the HeUothinae was pub- 

 lished by me in 1874; except that, I had gone no farther than describ- 

 ing the species as they came up from time to time. Twenty-five years 

 ago, when I commenced to study, we had less than a dozen named spe- 

 cies of Noctuidae in American collections, now we have about fifteen 

 hundred. The most of them I have described. After my visit, in 1868, 

 to Europe, I originally applied the natural characters used in German 

 works by Lederer and others, translating the terms. I believe I am the 

 first to call the corneous plate at the base of the clypeus, the " infra- 

 clypeal plate;" I translated Lederer's term "Wimpern" by " lashes." 



TKANS. AMUR. KNT. SOC. X. (f>5) MAY, 1883. 



