138 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. volxxi. 



and outward, not recurved ; three equally short, stout lower hooks on 

 each side, projecting outward, divergent from each other, slightly beut 

 down or doublj^ bent, not recurved. Length, 14 mm. 

 Food i)lants. — Oak, beech, chestnut. 



ACRONYCTA MODICA Walker. 



(Plates II, fig. 4, adult; IV, fig. 9, adult; V, fig. fi, larva; XVIII, fig. 25, leg; XXI, 



fig. 26, male genitalia.) 



A crony eta modi ca Walker, Cat. Brit. Mus., Het., 1856, IX, p. 56; IUitlkij, Ent. 

 Amer., 1887, III, p. 36. 



Acronycta exilis Grote, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1874, p. 197. 



Lejnlonuma exilis Grote, Papilio, 1883, III, p. 112.— Butler, Ent. Amer., 1887, 

 III, p. 36, ? pr. syn.— Smith, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 44, 1893, p. 44, pr, 

 syn.— Grote, List Eupterotidae, etc., 1895, p. 14, an var. pr. 



Ground color a dirty, very pale yellowish gray. Head with a dusky 

 line in front; collar usually yellow at base, above which is a black line, 

 and this may be followed by a paler line before the tip. The primaries 

 have all the markings more or less evident, but always broken. Basal 

 line geminate, blackish, marked on the costa only. Transverse anterior 

 line geminate, blackish, always more or less broken, but as a whole out- 

 wardly oblique or a little drawn in near the middle. The intervening 

 space is of the ground color, never prominently darkened. The median 

 shade line is marked by an oblique dash from the costa to the reniform, 

 which it does not obscure. Below that point it is marked by black 

 scales and is irregular and outwardly bent on the veins. Transverse 

 posterior line geminate, outwardly bent over the cell, moderately 

 incurved below ; the two parts nearly evenly developed in most cases, 

 but sometimes the outer line best emphasized by black scales. Some- 

 times the lines are even; sometimes the outer line is quite strongly 

 dentate on the veins. There is a vague, irregular, subtermiual line 

 which is paler than the ground color, and in consequence best marked 

 in the dark specimens. There is a series of terminal lunules, some- 

 times preceded by a pale lunulate line. The basal black streak is 

 traceable in all the specimens, but it is never pronnnent, and sometimes 

 only a line of scales; usually it does not reach the transverse anterior 

 line, and when it does is not distinctly joined with it. There is a black 

 dagger mark extending from the subtermiual line inward, and as a rule 

 through the transverse posterior line to the median shade. Another 

 black mark extends inwardly from the subterminal line between veins 

 5 and 6, and this does not in any of the specimens before me extend to 

 the transverse posterior line. The ordinary spots are large; the orbic- 

 ular round or nearly so, usually paler than the ground color, but it 

 may be marked with yellowish; the reniform is large, more or less con- 

 stricted in the center, and marked with reddish yeUow. There is a 

 vague reddish or yellowish shading through the center of the wing, 

 which is hardly localized, except in the ordinary spots. Secondaries 

 smoky in both sexes; a little darker in the female. Beneath yellowish 



