NOTES UPON CATOCALA SNOWIANA 

 And Varieties in the Genus. 



By A. R. Grote. 



I have au;ain carefully examined my type of this species. 

 By the deep ochre yellow secondaries and the breadth of the 

 mesial black band superiorly, I identify it as belonging to the 

 Kansas form, hitherto regarded by me as a variety of our 

 Eastern Covinninis, or of the Southern Neogania of Abbot and 

 Smith. In the type, which is evidently an aberrant specimen, 

 the fore wings are paler and appear somewhat aborted. This 

 Kansas form, which must take the name Snoiviana, differs by the 

 forewings being diffusely shaded with black and wanting the 

 brown subterminal space and greenish gray tint of the Eastern 

 Coviuinnis. The mesial black band on the hind wings is broader 

 above ; the secondaries themselves are of an intense ochre yellow, 

 darker than in the Southern Neogania. We then have three 

 named forms which may be ultimately classed as varieties of 

 Neogania. First the typical form from the South, of which a 

 specimen collected by Belfrage in Texas, is in the collection 

 before me. This has the hind wings and abdomen of a lighter 

 yellow, the band as in the Northern form, the fore wings more 

 gray than black, wanting the brown tints. Secondly the North- 

 ern and Eastern form, found from Canada to the Ohio River, 

 described by Guenee as Neogania, but which, to distinguish it, I 

 have called Communis. Thirdly the form above described from 

 Kansas and which has perhaps a wider range. The question as to 

 the value of these forms must be decided at a future date, when 

 their complete history becomes known. It is, however, neces- 

 sary, in order to discuss them intelligibly, that they bear different 

 designations. 



Since I first worked up the North American species of Catocala, 

 a large number of species have been described and a great num- 

 of varieties named. I biiefly enumerate here the varieties 

 named by myself so that there may be no doubt as to what I have 

 intended by the names. I do so because this showy genus has, 

 since 1872, been extensively written upon and there has been 

 some misrepresentation with regard to the forms described by 

 myself. 



Var. Simulatilis of Obseura, has the median lines of the 

 fore wings thick and distinct in both sexes, whereas, in the type, 

 as figured, they are thread-like and partially illegible. Var. 

 Sinuosa of Coceinata occurs in Florida ; it differs from the typical 

 form, described by myself, by the band on the hind wings being- 

 reduced to a sinuate, narrow, discal line or mark. Var. SeintiUans 

 is a well known and distinct form of Innubens, in which the 

 fore wings are solidly brown to the subterminal line. Var. 



