NO. 1140. NORTH AMERICAN NOCTUIDAE— SMITH AND D YAR. 151 



Megacephala is also unique and utterly unlike anything represented 

 ill the American fauna. There is nothing to contradict its reference to 

 Acronycta, however, though I am at a loss as to how the structure could 

 have been derived from anything known to me. 



ACRONYCTA ILLITA, new species. 

 Plates XI, fig. 12, female adult; XVIII, fig, 22, leg; XXII, fig. 1, male genitalia.) 



Ground color a dirty ashen gray, very powdery. Head and thorax 

 without distinct markings. Primaries with all the markings obscured. 

 Basal line geminate, black marked on the costa only. Transverse 

 anterior line geminate, smoky or blackish, as a whole oblique, more or 

 less outcurved between the veins. The median shade line is marked 

 by an oblique dash on the costa only. Transverse posterior line gem- 

 inate, lunulate, the inner line hardly defined; the outer broken, com- 

 posed of smoky or black lunules, the intervening space a little paler. 

 Subternnnal line pale, rather vaguely defined, broken, followed by a 

 series of black lunulate marks. There is a series of black terminal 

 dots, before which the terminal space is a little paler. A few black 

 scales indicate a basal, longitudinal line, and there is a feebly marked 

 line above the anal angle, extending from the transverse posterior line 

 to the outer margin. The ordinary spots are very obscure, of moderate 

 size, the orbicular a little oval, centered with dusky; the reniform large, 

 incomplete, more or less kidney-shaped, dusky, with a very pale central 

 crescent. The space between the ordinary spots is iialer than the rest 

 of the wing. Secondaries soiled whitish, the veins a little dusky. 

 Beneath white powdered, with a more or less obvious discal spot, but 

 in the specimens before me without an exterior transverse line. 



Expanse, 1.70 to 1.88 inches (44 to 47 mm.). 



Habitat. — Denver; Glen wood Springs, Colorado, July. 



Four specimens, not in the best of condition, are at hand. Three of 

 them are males, the fourth is a female, with one pair of wings only. 

 The species looks, at first sight, like a very dark luteicoma and resem- 

 bles that species most nearly. I believe it to be distinct, however, and 

 the very dark-powdered primaries, with secondaries in which there is 

 no trace of yellow, give the creature a very distinctive appearance. 

 The head is well developed, the front convex, but hardly bulging, the 

 palpi closely applied to the front, and reaching the middle. The legs 

 are well proportioned. The anterior leg of the male has the femur 

 rather slender, the tibia large in proportion, the epiphysis inserted at 

 about the middle and scarcely reaching to the tip. The harpes are 

 moderate, and narrow slightly to the tip, where they are rather evenly 

 rounded. The clasper is slender and strongly curved toward the tip, 

 the inferior process very short and blunt. It is more than probable 

 that this species is not rare in its range. 



