Insecutor Inscitiae Menstruus 



Vol. I JANUARY. 1913 No. 1 



I HE title of our publication need not be considered to have 



any personal application. We endeavor to dispel, to 



some degree, our general ignorance of the forms of insect life 



by descriptions of species and genera, life-histories, and other 



pertinent facts. This publication is undertaken in memory of 



Augustus Radcliffe Grote, the best lepidopterist of 



America, living or dead, w^hose writings have always been to 



me a model and an inspiration. In July, 1 879, Mr. Grote 



undertook a small monthly journal, " The North American 



Entomologist," which, however, was discontinued at the end 



of the first volume. We hope to conduct this on much the 



same lines. Whether it lasts longer or not remains to be 



decided. 



HARRISON G. DYAR. 



NOTES ON COTTON MOTHS 



{Lepidoptera, Noctuida) 

 By HARRISON G. DYAR 



Without going into the generic synonymy of Cosmophila, Gonitis, 

 A letia, A nomis, and A labama, as these genera will be adequately dealt 

 with by Sir G. F. Hampson in a future volume of the " Catalogue of the 

 Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum," something may be said 

 on the species concerned. Many of them are known to feed on the 

 leaves of cotton in the larval state, and they are therefore of economic 

 importance. No adequate idea of the group can be had from a study 



