NO. 1140. NORTH AMERICAN NOCTUIDAE— SMITH AND T)TAR. 147 



others; second broken by tubercles I, the dorsal segtnents formed into 

 a pair of rounded spots, third broken by wart II, its dorsal segment 

 faint, but continuous ; fourth narrow, faint dorsally ; fifth in the incisure, 

 as long" as the first band. Warts I and II, and also III in a less degree, 

 short, erect, smooth cylinders, bearing a crown of stilt" black hairs; IV 

 to VI small and with few soft whitish hairs. No secondary hairs. 

 Skin points minute, rather sparse, a little larger in the round ad-dorsal 

 dot formed of the second band. 



Cocoon. — Small, not very thick, composed of silk and bits of wood, 

 or leaves bitten up. 



Pupa, — Smooth, brown, tapering, the abdominal segments coarsely 

 and densely punctured nearly or quite to the shagreened posterior 

 incisure; wing cases not grooved and only slightly wrinkled. Cre- 

 master a low, wide prominence, usually broad and sessile, not difteren- 

 tiated in color or sculpturing from the rest of the pupa. Above on each 

 side one, below two short, thick, black spines, projecting obliquely out- 

 ward, conic, their tips not recurved. Length, 8 mm. 



Food plant. — Maple. 



Group AURICOMA. 



All the species of this group have the vestiture more or less elevated 

 or roughened, and the primaries so powdered that the maculationship 

 is obscured. There are no distinct black daggers or dashes except in 

 xyliniformis, which is the best marked species of the group and the 

 only one in which the transverse maculation is at all clearly defined. 

 As a rule the tendency is to a longitudinal suffusion or strigate type of 

 maculation. There seem to be two or three series represented, derived 

 from different points in the loheUae group, but difticult to define. All 

 of them, however, come from one of the types in which the vestiture is 

 roughened. 



Illita and luteicoma are obvious derivatives of the hrumosa type or 

 of some form between it and pruni, from which also xyliniformis and its 

 allies can be drawn in a different direction. All these forms are long 

 winged and tend to a lanceolate type, the median lines becoming strongly 

 dentate. 



Noctivaga, sperata, eniacidata, inipressa, and distans are smaller 

 species, very similar in type of maculation, with short, obtuse, trig- 

 onate primaries, and an evident tendency to the connecta-alni type of 

 maculation. 



Luteicoma and illita are long and rather narrow-winged species, the 

 outer margin of primaries being oblique, rounded, and with the apices 

 a little marked. The ground color is ash gray, and the maculation is 

 only a little darker. All the transverse lines and the ordinary spots 

 are traceable, though broken; but there are no longitudinal streaks, 

 dashes, or shades, and no tendencies to a strigate type of maculation. 



Illita is from the Rocky Mountain region, with the primaries much 

 darker and the secondaries much lighter than in the Eastern luteicoma. 



