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On the Insect Fauna of the White Mountains. 



Mr. Grote, in an article " On the Insect Fauna of the White 

 Mountains," in Psyche for last month, writes as follows: " On 

 comparing it {Agrotis scropulana Morr.) with three speci- 

 mens of Paclmobia carnea, Thunb., from Labrador, it seems to 

 me probable that a larger series may show that the species are 

 the same," and " I have a single specimen (of Agrotis opipara, 

 Morr.) from the White Mountains, of which my determination 

 is not absolute, but I believe it to be the species, since it came 

 from Mr. Morrison, though unnamed. If so, I think we have 

 to do with A. islandica."" 1 



In making synonymical corrections, we want certainties, not 

 probabilities, and it is " obviously unsafe " to make or to insin- 

 uate such corrections on the scanty and doubtfully determined 

 material, which Mr. Grote states he possesses. I will mention 

 that the four species named are entirely distinct from each 

 other ; and that, in working on my paper on the genus Agrotis, 

 my material of them consisted of thirty Paclmobia carnea, from 

 Labrador, and one from the White Mountains, bred by myself; 

 six specimens each of Agrotis scropulana and opipara, all bred 

 from the larvae ; and three specimens of Agrotis islandica, lent 

 me by Dr. Packard. 



In Paclmobia carnea there is no basal black dish, and the 

 reniform spot is obsolete ; in Agrotis scropulana the basal 

 dash is very large, black and distinct, and the claviform spot is 

 long, clear yellow and conspicuous ; in the- former the interior 

 line is oblique and outwardly undulate, in the latter it is very 

 strongly drawn in, sometimes touching the basal dash. Agrotis 

 islandica and opipara do not bear any resemblance to each 

 other : the ground color is entirely different ; the former is a 

 dull gray inconspicuous species, with fine and interrupted mark- 

 ings, the latter is entirely cinereous, with distinct heavy black 

 markings. I do not think it necessary to give other points of 

 difference, as those pointed out above are amply sufficient to 

 separate the insects. II. K. Morrison. 



