Sept.igoy. I SmITH : NOTES ON SOME AMERICAN NOCTUIDS. 147 



ties taken by different collectors ; so that there is no doubt that we 

 have a native, though very rare species to deal with. There is no 

 doubt either that the resemblance to the European brunnea is well- 

 marked and very close ; but I am by no means certain that we are 

 justified in referring the name to the synonymy until more careful and 

 thorough comparisons, extending to an examination of the c^ genitalia 

 shall have been made. 



Agrotis eriensis Grt. Harapson is correct in referring this to 

 jucunda instead of phyllophora where I placed it. The specimen is 

 unusually large, lacks all black and has yellow costal mottlings. 



Agrotis esurialis Grt. This is a good species as Hampson makes 

 it, rather than a race oi jucunda as I believed in 1891. The species 

 in this group of what I call Noctua are much more numerous and more 

 closely allied than I believed fifteen years ago, and this Pacific Coast 

 form is entitled to stand. I have nothing in my collection that is 

 quite like the type ; but the species has a Pachnobia-like appearance 

 that is characteristic of a series that I have from Oregon and I believe 

 these to come within the range of variation. 



Noctua patefacta Smith. This is without much doubt Agrotis 

 juncta Grt. , although Hampson has kept them as distinct. I have had 

 a figure oi juncta for some time, marked as a faded patefacta in my 

 collection, and direct comparison confirms my belief. My name 

 must be cited in the synonymy in future. 



Agrotis subporphyrea Wlk. Hampson places this species with 

 piscipellis, atrifrons and cinereicollis, rather than with the species of 

 Rhynchagrotis where I was inclined to seek its allies. There are two 

 female examples in the collection and I cannot remember even having 

 seen anything to match them among American material. The figure 

 on PI. LXXI of the " Catalogue " is good as to form and color ; but 

 the lines are much more prominent than in the original. 



The species that we have heretofore known as Pachnobia carnea 

 Thunb., must hereafter be cited as P. cinerea Stgr. At the time of 

 my previous visit to the Museum there was a mixture of species under 

 the name carnea, and I noted in my catalogue that I did not autopti- 

 cally know Thunberg's species. I followed in the identification Mr. 

 Grote, and he, I believe, relied upon Staudinger, Speyer, Moeschler 

 and Zeller. Hampson now places carnea Thunb., as a synonym of 

 brunnea Schiff. , and raises what Staudinger named as an aberration to 

 specific rank. As it stands now the American form is not circumpolar 

 and is different from anything found in the European fauna. 



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