NO. 1140. NORTH AMERICAN NOCTUIDAE— SMITH AND DYAR. 1 1 1 



whitish scales. The head has a white line between the antennae and 

 there may be another one across the middle. The little tuft at the 

 base of the abdomen is unusually distinct and is often black tipped. 

 The primaries have the ordinary markings fairly evident and some- 

 times very distinct. The basal line is geminate, blackish, marked on 

 the costa only. The transverse anterior line is narrowly geminate, 

 black, a little outcurved to the middle, where it is distinctly drawn in, 

 and again outwardly oblique below to the inner margin. In most 

 cases the line is more or less indistinct. The transverse posterior line 

 is geminate, the outer portion of the line black, rather even, only a 

 little drawn in in the submedian interspace. It is accompanied by a 

 brownish shade, which is perceptible but not easy to locate. The inner 

 portion of the line is smoky and not very distinct, best marked by the 

 pale intermediate filling. There is a iiiore or less evident, but hardly 

 defined, subterminal line, which is paler than the ground color and 

 somewhat diffuse. There is a narrow black line at the base of the 

 fringes, which are cut by the broad, smoky shades. The median shade 

 is more or less smoky, forming an oblicjue, blackish shade from the 

 costa through the reniform, there bent and running inwardly as a 

 smoky shade, reaching the internal margin at the transverse anterior 

 line. Any portion or the whole of this shade may be absent. The 

 basal black streak is well marked and has a short spur from the middle 

 inferiorly. A black streak extends inward from the outer margin 

 above the anal angle, and reaches the transverse posterior line just 

 above vein 2. There is a shorter black dash extending nearly to the 

 subterminal line. The ordinary spots are fairly defined; the orbicular 

 round or nearly so, outlined in black scales, within which is a pale 

 annulus and a center of the ground color. The reniform is of mod- 

 erate size, kidney shaped, inwardly marked by black scales, then by an 

 almost complete pale ring, the center being of the ground color. Sec- 

 ondaries white in the male, outwardly smoky in the female. Beneath, 

 more or less powdery, sometimes smoky in the male. Secondaries 

 with a more or less evident discal si)ot and outer line, which is fre- 

 quently wanting in the male. 



Expanse, 1.28 to 1.40 inches (32 to 35 mm.). 



Habitat. — Texas in May; Garfield County, Colorado, 7,000 feet; 

 Denver, Colorado (Bruce); Kansas. 



Six males and two females are before me, and I have seen others. 

 The species is a distinct one, and while it very closely resembles /a^cwZa 

 in all essential characters it is yet quite easily separable from it. 

 There are none of the red shades which occur in the more Eastern 

 species, and the details of the markings differ quite obviously. One of 

 the most prominent points is in the fact that there is a short streak 

 above the second vein instead of the usual simple dagger mark. 

 This gives quite a different character to that part of the wing and 

 makes the species an easily recognizable one. The front is convex but 



