PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Among tbe genera reserved for study by Dr. Riley was Acronycta, 

 wliich had interested him for years becanse of the differences noted 

 among the larvae. Certain studies of structural cliaracters were made 

 by Mi-. Tlieodore I'ergande, of the Division of Entomology, and by 

 myseIC, and under Dr. Kiley's sui)ervi8ion most of the adults and all 

 the obtainabUi larvae were figured in colors. It was intended that the 

 work should make Bulletin No. 7 of the Division, to be published iu 

 1885, ;ind seven chiomolithographic plates were actually printed. So 

 many life histories were incomplete, however, and so much difficulty 

 was encountered in obtaining missing species, that publication was 

 posti)oned from time to time until, in 1891, Bulletin No. 7 Avas finally 

 devoted to another theme, and the matter was allowed to rest for the 

 time being. In 1880 I resigned my place in Washington to accept that 

 now occupied by me in New Jersey, and all plans for combined mono- 

 graphic work by Dr. Kiley and myself were abandoned. 



Dr. Itiley retired from the Department of Agri(;ulture in 1894 and 

 devoted himself to work in the U. !S. National Museum, intending to 

 take up and complete those lines of scientific study which were perforce 

 abandoned through the burden of routine work in the Department. 

 His untimely death i^revented this; and in arranging his affairs his 

 widow very kindly turned over to me the entire mass of papers and 

 notes, together with all the original drawings and sketches referring 

 to Acronycto. 



On the occasion of my visit to the British Museum iu 1891 I did 

 not see the entire (;ollection of Acronycta, partly because they were 

 not then all included Avith the true Noctuidae by ]Mr. Butler, partly 

 because, my time being limited, I relied upon the comparisons made 

 by Dr. Kiley. 



The manuscript turned over to me contained the notes on the British 

 Museum specimens made by Dr. Riley, and all the breeding notes and 

 records accumulated for juany years in the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture. There was no descriptive matter, however, and not even an 

 outline of a proposed systematic division. All the systematic matter, 

 therefore, is original. 



To the kindness of Dr. L, O. Howard, who succeeded Dr. Riley as 

 Honorary Curator of Insects in the U. S. National Museum, as he suc- 

 ceeded to his place in the Department of Agriculture, I owe the loan of 

 the entire material, of every kind, in this group from both Museum 

 and Department. 



To this was added the collection accumulated by me for Rutgers 

 College, and the rich material borrowed from Mr. J. Doll, of Brooklyn; 

 Dr. R. Ottolengui, of New York; Mr. E. L. Graef, of Brooklyn; Mr. 

 Philip Laurent, of Philadelphia; Dr. William Barnes, of Decatur, and 

 Prof. George H. French, of Carbondale, Illinois. To Mrs. C. H. Fer- 

 nald I owe a number of specimens from her own collection and others, 

 with notes, from the collection of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College Experiment Station. 



