NO.1140. NORTH AMERICAN NOCTUIDAE— SMITH AND DYAR. ill 



orange red blotches between the warts subdorsally and substigmatally. 

 Hair short, stiff, black and white. 



Stage YT. — Head bilobed, black, clypeus yellowish, the black pig- 

 ment spotted, leaving a number of white streaks on the sides, a streak 

 over the apex and a clypeal Vniark; lower half of clypeus and anten- 

 nae" white; width, about 2.7 mm. Body black, a Avhite subdorsal line 

 blotched with red between warts I and If; lateral £vrea mottled with 

 white; a white substigmatal band, passing over wart V, with orange 

 blotches above it on the small wart IV. Warts large, I to III and VI 

 dark, IV and \^ reddish. The black dorsum is broken by little white 

 dots close to the incisures. Hairs as before. Later the white marks 

 become yellow. 



IStaijc VII. — Head shining black, side pieces of clypeus white or red, 

 forming a V mark, a white streak on vertex of each lobe and a network 

 of continent white lines on the sides; width, 4 mm. Body black, the 

 warts light orange red, obscurely connected by this color. Traces 

 of dorsal, distinct subdorsal line, broken and mottled, the whole side 

 area thickly covered with little streaks and dots of yellow; a straight, 

 even, narrow yellow stigmatal band, crossing the orange wart IV. 

 Subventral area and venter heavily yellow dotted; a geminate i)ale 

 medio ventral band. Hair black and white, bristly, mixed with softer 

 hairs which predominate subventrally. No secondary hairs. 



Cocoon. — S[)nii tightly among leaves; composed of silk. 



Pupa. — lilack, except in the Joinings of the parts, where it is reddish , 

 coarsely roughened. Anal segments rapidly tapering; the segments 

 have a distinct smooth raised posterior rim and are coarsely granular 

 in front, tlie granules rounded, subcontlueiit. Wing cases coarsely 

 shagreened. Cremaster a tapering continuation of the last segment, 

 not differentiated, but beariug a thick terminal tuft of line straight 

 spines. 



Food plants. — Grass, sraartweed, willow. 



MEROLONCHE Grote. 

 Merolonchc Grotk, 111. Kssay, 1882, p. 50. 



Very robust, shaggy species, with loose, divergent vestiture, retracted 

 head, weak tongue, and shortly pectinated male antennae. 



Head small, retracted, front narrow, a little conically protuberant, 

 though this varies in the species. l<^yes small, naked, without hairy 

 lashes. Pal])i small, hardly exceeding the front, clothed with rather 

 stiff, diverging hair. Tongue weak, useless for feeding. Antennae 

 shortly pectinated in the male, simple in the female. 



Thorax well developed, robust, convex; patagiae and collar well 



marked, the vestiture thick, rather loose, and composed of somewhat 



flattened hair. I^o tufts are formed, but there is a bunching of the 



vestiture posteriorly. Legs rather short and stout, proportioned, as 



Proc. N. M. vol. xxi 12 



