152 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. volxxi. 



ACRONYCTA LUTEICOMA Grote and Robinson. 



(Plates I, fig. 5, adult; YI, fig. 16, larva; XV, fig. 18, head; XVIII, fig. 23, leg; 

 XXII, fig. 2, male geuitalia.) 



Acronycta luleicoma Grote and Robinson, Trans. Am. Ent. See. ,1870, III, 179, 



pl. II, fig. 83. 

 Pharelra luteicoma Grote, Mitth. a. d. Roem. Mus., Hildesh., No. 3, p. 7. 



Grouud color a dirty, powdery ash gray, with a more or less well 

 marked yellow tint. The collar is usually a little dark at tip, and the 

 patagiae often have a dusky margin. Primaries, with all the markings 

 traceable, though not prominent. Basal line geminate, black or black- 

 ish, usually reaching to the middle of the wing. Transverse anterior 

 line geminate, outwardly oblique, outcurved between the veins. The 

 median shade when best marked extends obliquely from the costa 

 across the reniform, then makes an acute angle, and extends obliquely 

 inward to the middle of the internal margin. Between this and its 

 entire absence all iutergrading forms are found. Transverse posterior 

 line geminate, the inner line incompletely defined, the outer smoky or 

 blackish, lunulate, the included space whitish and also lunulated. As 

 a whole, the line is somewhat Ssliaped. The subterminal line consists 

 of a series of more or less connected white spots, outwardly margined 

 by blackish lunules or dashes which do not reach the outer margin. 

 There is a series of black terminal dots. There is no trace of a basal 

 black line. In some specimens there is a blackish shading just below 

 the submedian vein, between the transverse anterior line and the 

 median shade. The ordinary spots are of good size, the orbicular 

 irregular, round or oval, defined with black scales and with a dusky 

 center, the reniform large, kidney-shaped, outlined by black scales and 

 shaded with dusky. The secondaries vary from soiled whitish with a 

 j^ellowish tinge to.smoky yellow, those of the female being as a whole 

 the darker. Beneath whitish powdery, sometimes with a vaguely 

 defined outer line and more usually with a discal spot. 



Expanse, 1.50 to 2 inches (38 to 50 mm.). 



Habitat. — Canada, southward to Georgia and Texas, west to the Cen- 

 tral States. Maine in June; central New York in June; District of 

 Columbia, April and May; central Illinois in August; Texas in Febru- 

 ary ; ? California. 



In my catalogue I have also recorded the species from Colorado, and 

 Portland, Oregon. It is more than likely that these localities refer to 

 the preceding species; but I do not have the specimens at the present 

 time to refer to. Dr. Dyar records the larva from California, but points 

 out a difference which may really indicate a good species. 



This is the largest and narrowest winged species in this group, which 

 has no tendency to a lanceolate type. The primaries are subequal and 

 the outer margin is roundly oblique, leaving the apex just a little 

 acute. Two forms are distinguishable, depending upon the amount of 

 yellow suffusion. In the one case the secondaries are almost white in 



