Sept.. 1907] Smith : Notes on Some American Noctuids. 141 



NOTES ON SOME AMERICAN NOCTUIDS IN THE 

 BRITISH MUSEUM. 



By John B. Smith, Sc.D., 



New Brunswick, N. J. 



In Vol. XII of the Journal N. Y. Ent. Soc, pp. 93-104, 1904, 

 I published a review of Vol. IV of Catalogue of PhalgenK, etc., then 

 recently issued. This volume, the first of the series on the Noctuids, 

 by Sir George F. Hampson, contained some changes in the accepted 

 synonymy as based on previous studies and comparisons. I was not 

 quite ready to accept all of these references of species nor the use of 

 genera in the way Hampson typified them. As to the genera the 

 difference is due to the fundamental rule accepted for the determina- 

 tion of generic types and agreement cannot be reached until a uniform 

 basis is agreed upon by zoologists. As to the species it was matter 

 for further study of the original types. In September, 1906, it was 

 my good fortune to be able to spend some time in London ; for a week 

 I went over the Noctuid collection, and Sir George was good enough 

 to look over with me all those species about which 'our conclusions 

 were at variance. Taking up the species in the order of my notes, the 

 following memoranda were made. 



Py7'ocleptria californica Hamps. This is Annaphila aurantiaca 

 Hy. Edw. That the species was not an Annaphila I pointed out in my 

 Catalogue of 1893 and also stated that it was an Heliothid for which I 

 had no satisfactory place. In 1895 Mr. Grote created his genus Incita 

 to receive it ; but evidently without specimens and without recogniz- 

 able description. At any rate aurantiaca is type of Incita Grt., and 

 so the species must be known, with californica Hamps., as synonym. 

 The type of Pyrocleptria is cora Gn., and if that species is really con- 

 generic with aurantiaca the name Pyrocleptria must sink as a synonym 

 of Incita. 



Heliothis lupatus Grt. This is the Xestia chloropha of Hubner 

 without very much doubt, and it disposes of another of those miser- 

 able species that have remained so long unidentified in our catalogues. 

 Hampson first suggested this synonymy in a letter and after com- 

 paring my only specimen with the figure, I have no doubt that he is 

 correct. I am not aware that he has published the reference, but 

 the credit for it belongs to him at any rate. The species is not at all 



