NO. 1140. NOBTR AMERICAN NOCTUIDAE— SMITH AND DYAR. 139 



or smoky, more or less powdery, and with a more or less obvious outer 

 line and discal spot. 



Expanse, 1.20 to 1.40 inches (30 to 35 mm.). 



Habitat. — Massachusetts to Minnesota, to Texas; central I^Tew York, 

 June and July; Washington, District of Columbia, in June; Texas, July 

 and August. 



This species is still paler than ovata, which it resembles by the peculiar 

 reddish yellow shading in the wing and to which it is very closely 

 allied. It is a small species, however, and slighter, though the range 

 of size overlaps. The wings are narrower as a whole. In this species 

 the transverse anterior line, while it may be somewhat drawn in at its 

 middle, is as a whole oblique and never prominently filled with blackish 

 scales. The basal streak which is so prominent in ovata is in this 

 species almost entirely wanting. There is little variation in the 

 examples before me, and it is only a question of more or less yellow 

 and perhaps a little difference in size. Walker's description of the 

 species fits this very well and fits nothing else known to me. Mr. 

 Butler's suggestion that this is the same as Mr. Grote's exilis I believe 

 to be correct. Where there are only two or three examples illustrating 

 extremes, it may be possible to dou'bt that they belong to the same 

 species, but with a goodly array of specimens no possible doubt can 

 arise. The structural characters offer nothing to distinguish this 

 from the other species of the group either in head, leg, or genital 

 structures. 



LARVA. 



Stage VI. — Head pale whitish, mottled and reticulated with choco- 

 late brown, darkest in a dash on each side of the median suture in 

 front; width, 2.2 mm. Tubercles prominent, slightly conic, high, all 

 single haired to VI, which bears over four hairs. Oround whitish, 

 powdered with chocolate brown, tubercles reddish at base. A brown 

 line above wart III, defined by a pale shade above and broken only in 

 the incisure, extends along joints 3 to 12 posteriorly, where it curves 

 to join the dorsal line. It is most pronounced on joint 2. Dorsal line 

 geminate, obscure, diffuse, single on joints 12-13, and stronger. Small, 

 oblique dashes before warts I on joints 5-11; indistinct supra and sub- 

 stigmatal lines, curving up dorsally on joint 13; a sub ventral shade 

 above wart YI; feet pale. Hairs white, not long. Warts alike. 



Stage VII. — Head large, scarcely bilobed; shagreened, shiny, light 

 brown, mottled and reticulated with brown, a blackish baud from each 

 lobe above, parallel to median suture meeting a brown v-shaped mark 

 which borders the clypeus, passing on to the paired pieces above; a 

 heavy brown mottling over the eye, passing backward; width, 3.3 mm. 

 Body smooth, cylindrical, joint 12 slightly enlarged, light brown, shaded 

 with blackish. A broad black subdorsal shade, broken at the incisures, 

 defined above by whitish reaches from joint 2 to 12, where the shade 

 curves sharply dorsad in the incisure 12-13, forming a black mark on 



