NO. 1140. NORTH AMERICAN NOCTUI DAE— SMITH AND DYAR. 45 



on the costa only. The transverse anterior line is geminate, usually 

 incomplete, sometimes hardly traceable. As a whole it is outwardly 

 oblique, strongly dentated, and outcurved between the veins. The 

 transverse posterior line is more distinct, lunulated outwardly, denticu- 

 lated on the veins. The inner line is less marked than the outer, and 

 the intervening space is usually paler, sometimes quite prominently so. 

 There is no subterminal line and no distinct trace of any such in any 

 specimen before me. In some specimens there is a fairly distinct shade 

 line running obliquely from the costa to and darkening the middle of 

 the reniform, but this does not extend below that point in any si)eci- 

 men that I have seen. The ordinary spots are fairly distinct in most 

 specimens; the orbicular is round or oval, ringed with blackish, and 

 without a central spot in the specimens before me. The reniform is 

 large, kidney shaped, usually somewhat incomplete, and occasionally 

 vaguely defined. It has always a central, dusky lunule, and is some- 

 times entirely dark. There is a distinct black dash in the submedian 

 interspace crossing the transverse posterior line, and there is another, 

 much less obvious, which crosses the line opposite the cell. In some 

 cases a dusky shading accompanies the first mentioned of these sjiots. 

 There is a series of dark terminal dots, beyond which the fringes are 

 cut with smoky. The secondaries are yellowish gray or white in the 

 male, more or less smoky and sometimes quite dark in the female. In 

 some specimens the outer line of the underside is visible through the 

 wing. Beneath, whitish or smoky, both wings with a discal spot and 

 a more or less obvious outer line. 



Expanse, from 2 to 2i inches (50 to 62 mm.). 



Habitat. — From Canada to Texas, west to Salt Lake City. It is 

 taken in New York from May to July almost continuously, and again 

 in September; Washington, District of Columbia, May 10; New Hamp- 

 shire, July 12; Mount Airy, Pennsylvania, May 1 and 18; Texas, in 

 April; Canada, June and July. 



This is the largest species of the group, and can hardly be mistaken 

 for any other. While on close examination it has almost identically 

 the markings of the preceding, yet they are much less evident and 

 more broken. The dagger marks crossing the transverse posterior 

 line are usually quite evident, though that opposite the cell is not infre- 

 quently wanting. Besides being larger, the wings of this species are 

 also more evenly trigouate than are those of the preceding. There is 

 some variation in ground color, but not much in other directions. Mr. 

 Edwards has described an unusually dark form from Salt Lake City as 

 ohscura; but similar forms occur in the East, and the difference, such 

 as it is, is hardly worthy of a separate name. Smith and Abbot con- 

 sidered this to be the same as the European aceris; bat, as Guenee 

 pointed out, the similarity is not very strongly marked. 



The clasper of the male is of moderate length and stout, quite evenly 

 curved. The harpes are unusually broad at the center and taper to a 

 rounded point. The anterior leg of the male is very strongly devel- 



