NO.H4U. NORTH AMERICAN NOCTUIDAE— SMITH AND DYAB. 51 



place; it is also niucb darker bluish gra}\ In tlie male the secondaries 

 are somewhat soiled instead of nearly white, as in the Eastern species. 

 The markings in the female are much more obscure, and the dagger 

 mark opi)osite the anal angle is entirely absent, although its position 

 is indicated by the angle in the line which has been referred to in the 

 description. The sexual characters of the male do not difJer from the 

 ordinary form in this series. 



ACRONYCTA DACTYLINA Grote. 



(Plates I, fig. 3, udnlt; VII, figs. 18, 19, larva; XVII, fig. 11, leg; XIX, fig. 13, male, 

 genitalia; XVI, fig. 8, venation.) 



Apatela dactylina Groti:, Proc. Boat. .Soc. X. H., 1874, XVI, p. 239. — Morkisox, 



Psycho, 1875, I, p. 42.— Gkotf, Papilio, 1883, III, p. 111. 

 Megacronycta dactylina Ghote, Mitth. a. d. Roem. Mas., Hildesh, 'So. 3, 1896, p. 10. 



The ground color is bluish gray with rather dense, fine powderings. 

 Head and thorax without distinct markings, but powdered like the 

 rest of the upper surface. Primaries with the ordinary maculatiou 

 broken, basal line rarely marked even on the costa; transverse anterior 

 line variably evident, geminate near base, evenly oblique outwardly, 

 and moderately outcurved between the veins. In many cases a mark 

 below the cell is all that is present. The transverse posterior line is 

 single, black, lunulate, more or less dentate on the veins, preceded by 

 a paler and followed by a darker shading. There is a series of ter- 

 minal spots at the base of the fringes, from which a line sometimes cuts 

 through to the outer edge. The median shade is marked only by a 

 more or less indetinite, dusky, oblique shade on the costa, which extends 

 to and darkens the center of the reniform. The orbicular is small, 

 round, or oval, dark ringed, and centered with the ground color. The 

 reniform is kidney shaped and more or less dusky centered. The sec- 

 ondaries are white in the male, gray, with a slight smoky tinge, in the 

 female. Beneath white or gray, more or less powdery, all wings with 

 a discal spot, and in the female with a more or less obvious outer line. 



Expanse, 1.70 to 2 inches (4U to 50 mm.). 



Habitat. — Massachusetts, in June; Xew York, in June and July; 

 Minnesota, July 20; New Jersey, June 23; New Hampshire, July 20; 

 Maine; District of Columbia, in May; Canada, in July; Colorado. 



This species is quite widely distributed north of the Potomac and 

 west to the Kocky Mountains, but does not extend very far north of the 

 Canadian line, so far as the specimens before me indicate. The sjjecies 

 differs by its bluish-gray color from all those that have preceded it, and 

 the white secondaries are also distinctive. Occasionally a dark female 

 may cause doubt as to whether it is not referable to hastuUfera; but in 

 this case the locality comes to our aid to some extent, because the 

 present species does not extend south so far as does the other, while 

 hastulifera does not extend north as far as (lactijlina. The front in this 

 species and in hastuli/era is evenly convex, but not at all bulging and 



