NO. 1140. NORTH AMERICAN NOCTUIBAE— SMITH AND DYAR. 59 



ACRONYCTA LEPORINA Linnaeus. 



(Plates VIII, fig. 26, larva; XI, figs. 1, 2, male and female adults; XVII, fig. 14, leg; 

 XIX, figs. 17, 19, male genitalia.) 



riialacna nociiia leporina Linnaeus Syst. Nat., 1766, I, 2, p. 109. 



Acronicta leporina HObneu, Verzeichuiss, 1818, p. 201. — Trijitschke, Schniett. 



Eur., 1825, V, 1, p. 51. 

 Apatela vidpiva Gkote, Can. Ent., 1883, XV, p. 8; Papilio, 1883, III, p. 68; Can. 



Ent., 1888, XIX, ]>. 20.— Packahu, Forest Insects, 1890, p. 461,— Grote, 



Mittli. a. tl. Roem. Mus., Hildesh, No. 3, 1896, p. 91. 

 Apatela sancta Henky Edwards, Ento. Amer., 1888, III, p. 185. 



Ground color creamy white, the black powdering sparse and not 

 prominent. Head and thorax without markings; the primaries with 

 the ordinary lines more or less incomplete. The basal line is usually 

 marked by a dot on the costa; bat that is not always present. The 

 transverse anterior line is marked by a distinct black costal spot and by 

 a small angulated mark below the cell. Occasionally there is a dusky 

 shade on the inner margin. The median shade is marked by a black 

 spot at about the middle of the costa. The transverse posterior line 

 is usually broken, but occasionally it is almost continuous, sinuate, and 

 as a whole follows the outer margin. When the line is broken it con- 

 sists of a series of somewhat lunate spots opposite the cell, and a lunate 

 mark in the submedian interspace, which is crossed by a more or less 

 obvious black dash, though this may be entirely wanting. There is a 

 series of black terminal spots be^^ond which the fringes are distinctly 

 cut with black. The orbicular may be wanting, or may be indicated by 

 a black dot or by a small circlet. The reniform is marked by a more or 

 less distinct but indefinite black lunule. There is a short black basal 

 streak, which does not reach the angular spot indicating the transverse 

 anterior line. The secondaries white in both sexes, sometimes with 

 quite an obvious series of terminal lunules. Beneath white, with a 

 variably evident discal spot and outer line — always more distinct in the 

 female. 



Expanse, 1,50 to l.SO inches (38 to 45 mm.). 



Habitat. — Ontario, Canada; Maine; Jefferson, New Hampshire; 

 Massachusetts; New York; Northern Illinois. 



Three male and four female specimens have been compared with a 

 greater number of both sexes from Europe, and I am unable to discover 

 any difference between them. As a whole, oar specimens are perhaps 

 a trifle more powdery than the usual run of those from Europe; but 

 even this is not constant, and I have European specimens that are more 

 powdery than some American examples. The only variations that occur, 

 so far as 1 have seen, are in the distinctness of the transverse posterior 

 line and in the relative size of the black spots. Occasionally speci- 

 mens occur in which the black markings are very much reduced, so that 

 the wing at first sight seems rather irregularly black spotted. The 

 head is moderate in size, the front bulging, but not prominent; the 



