NO.1140. NORTH AMERICAN NOCTUIDAE— SMITH AND DYAE. .53 



matal band, excavated for the spiracles and concolorous with the lateral 

 hairs; spiracles white. 



Cocoon. — Single, elliptical, not very thick but tough, composed of 

 coarse silk with larval hair scattered over the outside, spun among 

 leaves, etc. 



Pupa. — Abdomen tapering, the segments sparsely punctured on the 

 anterior side; wing cases creased and shagreeued. Cremaster short 

 and blunt, coarsely shagreeued and wrinkled, the upper hooks in a 

 dense cluster of about eight on each side, the lower ones absent or 

 represented by one or two slight hooks. 



Food plants, — Alder, willow, birch. 



ACRONYCTA FELINA Grote. 

 (Plates XI, fig. 5), female adult; XIX, fig. 22, male genitalia.) 

 Apatela felina Guote, Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., 1880, IV, p. 208. 



Ground color a very dark blue gray, densely black powdered. Head 

 and thorax as usual immaculate. Primaries with all the lines absent, 

 or only vaguely indicated. The veins are somewhat darker than the 

 rest of the wing, which thus gives a somewhat strigate appearance. 

 There is a distinct black basal Hue, which extends well toward the middle 

 of the wing, and in some cases nearly meets another which reaches the 

 outer margin and represents the dash that in better-marked species 

 crosses the transverse posterior line. In some specimens the transverse 

 anterior line is marked on the costa, and occasionally the transverse 

 jjosterior line is indicated by a pale shade. The ordinary spots are 

 wanting; but in some instances the reuiform is vaguely indicated. The 

 fringes are cut by somewhat indistinct dark lines opposite the inter- 

 spaces; but there are no distinct terminal dots; occasionally a black 

 dash is traceable opposite the cell, about where the transverse posterior 

 line should cross. Secondaries white, in the female more or less 

 black powdered. Beneath j)owdery white, with a more or less obvious 

 discal dot and outer shade line. 



Expanse, l.GO to 1.80 inches (40 to 45 mm.). 



Habitat. — Seattle, Washington; Sierra Nevada, California; Colorado 

 (Bruce), Glenwood Springs in October (Barnes). 



Twelve specimens, evenly divided as to sex, are before me, and otter 

 very little in the way of variation. The species is quite characteristic 

 and its very dark gray color with the almost entire absence of the ordi- 

 nary marks will be sutticient to distinguish it. The head is rather 

 smaller than usual, and more retracted. The front is hardly bulging 

 and the tongue is a little weakened. The anterior legs of the male do 

 not differ essentially from those of the immediately preceding species. 

 The harpes of the male are more elongate than usual, quite even in 

 width, and obtusely rounded at the tip. The clasper is rather short, 

 strongly curved, and moderately stout. 



