June, 1S96.] GrOTE : NoTE ON AgRONOMA AND LaSPEVRIA. 85 



places in the daytime have generally gray or blackish, protectively col- 

 ored primaries, of such neutral tints as to deceive the eye in passing rap- 

 idly over an extended surface. But in Apatela the direction of the 

 mimicry, the object copied, differs in the larva and moth of the same 

 species. The independent direction of the larval efforts in this respect 

 is important evidence in sustaining the view that in metamorphosis the 

 stages acquire characters useless to the succeeding, and that here the 

 larva oi Apatela has attained an independent perfection as regards ulti- 

 mate peculiarities of adaptive structure applicable only to the conditions 

 of its own particular stage. 



CORRECTION OF THE TYPE OF AGRONOMA AND 

 NOTE ON LASPEYRIA. 



By A. Radcliffe Grote, A. M. 



It has been recently stated by Mr. John B. Smith that the type of 

 Agronoma, given by me in the Bremen List, May, 1895, p. 23, viz: 

 vesiigia/is, does not correspond in structure with jaculifera, the type of 

 Feliia, inasmuch as the front is not roughened or tuberculate and the 

 front pair of tibite are not heavily armed. Still my reference of Feltia 

 to Agronoma will hold. The material examined by me in Bremen in 

 1893-4, when writing the list, is no longer accessible to me and I am 

 not sure what species I examined. But Hiibner's genus Agronoma con- 

 tains, beside vesfigia/i's, both crassa and exclamationis. I have ex- 

 amined here, in the Roemer Museum, specimen of crassa. The fore 

 tibiae are heavily armed, the front is roughened or tuberculate, the male 

 antennje are pectinate. It is therefore a Feltia. Inasmuch as vestigi- 

 alis is referred as belonging to Agrotis in a restricted sense, and as 

 congeneric with the type segetum, as established by me and adopted 

 by me in the "Revision," it follows that the type of Agronoma 

 must be changed and crassa, the first species cited, is then the type. 

 Hiibner establishes Agronoma for species having the general aspect o^ 

 Jaculifera ; the claviform is usually suffused with a darker color. Proba- 

 bly the European species exclamationis, corticea, obesa, graslini and 

 fatidica belong to Agronoma and share the structure of crassa. The 

 name of our common North American species will then remain, as 

 claimed by me in the list : Agrotis (^Agronoma') jaculifera Gn. Those 

 using my Bremen List will please make the correction and I am much 



