WO.H40. NORTH AMERICAN NOCTUIDAE— SMITH AND DYAR. 127 



Marmorata is the odd species iu this j?ronp, and while the markings 

 and structure evidently refer it here, it really resembles most an exag- 

 gerated y'ro,^t7is. The ground color is almost white, and all the ordinary 

 lines and spots are fairly evident. The transverse i)osterior line is 

 quite strongly dentate, a median shade line is traceable, and the dag- 

 ger opposite the anal cell is quite obvious. The arrangement of shades 

 and tints gives the wing a somewhat marbled appearance which makes 

 it easily recognizable. 



There are no European species known to me that belong to this 

 group. 



ACRONYCTA AFFLICTA Grote. 



(Plates I, tig. 15, adult; V, figs. 1, 2, larva; XXI, iig. 19, male genitalia.) 



Acronycta afflicta GuoJK, Proc. Ent. Soc. Phila., 18(i4, II, j). 438, i>l. ix, fig. 4; 



Trans. Aiu. Ent. Soc, 1870, III, p. 179. 

 Apatela afflivta I'ackard, Forest Insects, 1890, p. 168. 

 Uyboma afflicla Grote, Mitth., a. <1. Roem. Mus., Hildosh., No. 3, 1896. 



Ground color whitish, so densely overlaid by black scales that the 

 creature seems almost black at first sight. Head and thorax mottled 

 with gray and black scales. The head and base of the collar almost 

 entirely black. The patagiae also with black markings at the margins. 

 The primaries with all the maculation obscured and iu most cases 

 hardly traceable. All the transverse lines are fragmentary and indi- 

 cated by elevated black scales j but it is scarcely possible to i)ick out 

 the course of any of them satisfactorily. There is a broken, zigzag 

 white subterminal line which is quite distinct, and there is a narrow 

 white line preceding a series of terminal black dots. The fringes are 

 marked alternately white and black. The orbicular is round, contrast- 

 ing, whitish, with a dusky center. The reniform is obscured by the 

 black ground color. Secondaries white in the male, becoming dusky 

 outwardl}^, the veins more or less soiled. In the female the secondaries 

 are dark as a whole, and there is a more or less obvious outer dusky 

 line. Beneath white, strongly black powdered, both wings with a 

 discal spot and a more or less obvious outer line. 



Expanse, 1.40 to 1.72 inches (35 to 43 mm.). 



Habitat. — Canada, south and southwest to Texas, west to the Eocky 

 Mountains. Massachusetts in June; New York City iu August; St. 

 Louis, Missouri, March; Texas, March and April. 



This is quite an easily recognizable species and by no means uncom- 

 mon. The almost black of the primaries is relieved by the white of the 

 secondaries and by the contrasting orbicular spot, all the other mark- 

 ings being more or less swallowed in the black overlaying of the scales. 

 The inner margin of the wings is a little more gray than the rest, and 

 when the insect has them folded it seems like a gray streak running 

 the full length from the head to the parting of the wings. There are 

 two rather distinct forms, though marked only in the males. In the 

 first the primaries are almost black and the secondaries almost white, 



