96 XOCTUIBiE. 



dorsal lines dark-edged, indistinct : a dorsal series of darker diamond- 

 and wedge-shaped marks; head marked with black. Food- plants : 

 Genuta, Polygonum, Stellarta, etc. 7-9. 



1257. Polia invalida. (Plate LXXX. fig. 31.) 



Mamesfra invalida, Smith, Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. xiv. p. 225 (1900) ; id. 

 Cat. Noct. N. Am. p. 119. 



2 . Head and thorax grey- white mixed with black ; tegulse with 

 medial black line ; patagia with black line near upper edge : tarsi black 

 with pale rings ; abdomen grey mixed with black. Fore wing grey- 

 white, thickly irrorated and in places suffused with fuscous ; a rather 

 ill-defined black streak below base of cell ; subbasal line very indis- 

 tinct, from costa to submedian fold ; antemedial line double, waved ; 

 claviform very large and broad, defined by black and with black streak 

 from it to postmedial line ; orbicular and reniform large, with white 

 annuli defined by black, the former round ; a dilfused medial line ; 

 postmedial line indistinctly double, somewhat dentate, bent outwards 

 below costa and incurved below vein 4, some white points beyond it 

 on costa and a whitish patch in submedian interspace ; subterminal 

 line white, defined on inner side by long dentate black marks and 

 on outer by black streaks in the interspaces, angled outwards at 

 vein 7 and dentate to near termen on veins 4, 3 ; a terminal series 

 of small black lunules ; cilia fuscous intersected with white. Hind 

 wing white nearly evenly suftused with brown, the cilia white ; the 

 underside white irrorated with reddish brown, a small discoidal spot 

 and indistinct curved postmedial line. 



Hah. U.S.A., Oregon, Portland, Colorado, Glenwood Springs, 1 2 , 

 California, Placer Co., Sierra Nevada. Eaj). 42 millim. 



Larva. (Original.) Head pale luteous, the reticulations and vertical 

 bands broad, dull brown, concolorous. Body rich red-brown, heavily 

 reticulated on a lighter ground. Dorsal, subdorsal, and broad sub- 

 stigmatal lines pale, whitish, darker-edged, not cut by the heavy 

 oblique subdorsal shades of blackish brown. Of these, the pair on 

 joint 1 2 are not confluent, being cut by the dorsal line and their 

 square posterior termination is narrow. Cervical shield and anal 

 plate darkened, not chitinized, cut by the pale subdorsal line, but 

 only narrowly so by the dorsal line. 



A general feeder. — H. G. D. 



1258. Polia thalassina. 



Noctua thcdaRnna, Rott. Naturf. ix. p. 1 19 (1775) ; Diip. Lep. Fr. vi. p. 292, 

 pi. 91. f. 3 ; Steph. 111. Brit. Ent., Haiist. ii. p. 182; Staud. Cat. Lep. 

 pal. p. 157. 



Nochia humeralis^. Haw. Lep. Brit. p. 190(1809). 



I^octua gcmina, Hiibn. Eur. Schniett., Noct. f. 483 (nee 482). 



Noctua achates, Hiibn. Eur. Schmett., Noct. f. 610 (1827). 



Head and thorax rufous mixed with grey ; palpi blackish at 

 sides ; frons with black bar ; tegulse with medial black line ; 

 abdomen yellowish mixed with brown, the dorsal crests with dark 



