—T 
CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARD A MONOGRAPH OF THE NOCTUIDAE OF 
BOREAL AMERICA. REVISION OF THE DICOPINZ. 
BY 
Joun B. Situ, Sc. -D. 
Under the'title Dicopine Mr. Grote, in the Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., XXt, 
154 (1883), separates a few species which seem to form a tolerably nat- 
ural group, without being really entitled to subfamily rank. The species 
agreein having naked, more or less obviously lashed eyes, arobust, heavy 
thorax, but proportionately small, conic abdomen. Thethoracic vestiture 
is dense, usually thick, sometimes coarse, never forming defined tufts, 
though there is usually a massing of the vestiture posteriorly. The head 
is somewhat retracted, sometimes quite obviously so, the tongue is weak 
and short, the palpi are small, not reaching or scarcely exceeding front, 
and the male antenne are bipectinated. The tibiz are not spinulose; 
but the anterior pair is armed with a stout, curved, corneous claw at 
tip. The anterior femora are quite stout, thicker than usual. Alto- 
gether the species have a bombyciform appearance, negatived princi- 
pally by the short, narrow, pointed primaries of most of the forms. The 
venation is normally noctuidous except that in the secondaries the cell 
is unusually long and the fureation of the subcostal unusually near the 
outer margin. Three genera are recognizable, two of them rather illy 
defined, the third habitally more than structurally different. 
Dicopis, the type of the group, has coarse, scaly vestiture, projecting 
straight forward on the front, giving it a scrubby, brush-like appear- 
ance. The head is slightly retracted and the abdomen has a series of 
more or less obvious dorsal tufts. 
EHutolype is rather narrower winged than the preceding, the abdom- 
inal tufts weak or entirely wanting. The thoracic vestiture is finer and 
smoother, and the frontal vestiture is smooth, even, and more woolly in 
appearance. The head is somewhat more prominent, forming an even 
cone from the crown of the collar to the front. The shape of the head 
and the character of the vestiture are really the only distinctive features, 
and that they are not striking is shown by the fact that Mr. Grote kept 
the species together, separating only rolandi by the tuft of metallic 
scales at the base of thorax. 
Copipanolis is a rather well-marked genus in which the wings are 
usually wider, more trigonate, the outer margin longer. The head is 
more strongly retracted and the thoracic vestiture fine, loose, and di- 
Proceedings National Museum, Vol. XV—No. 891. 
53 
