CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARD A MONOGRAPH OF THE NOCTUIDZ OF 
BOREAL AMERICA.—REVISION OF XYLOMIGES AND MORRISONIA. 
BY 
Joun B. Situ, Sc. D. 
(With Plate 111.) 
XYLOMIGES Gn. 
1852, Gn., Sp. Gen., Noct., 1, 147. 
Eyes hairy, round, moderate. Head small, retracted, with even, 
short, stiff, scaly vestiture, forming superposed flattened frontal tufts. 
Palpi short, reaching to, but scarcely exceeding, the front. Tongue long 
and strong. Antenne in the male pectinated, serrate and bristled, or 
ciliate merely. In the female they are simple, only sparsely ciliated. 
Thorax robust, quadrate, convex, with a variably distinct anterior and 
posterior tuft. Abdomen dorsally tufted. Legs unarmed, save for the 
ordinary spurs of middle and hind tibie. Primaries narrow, trigonate, 
elongate, with marked apices and obliquely rounded outer margin, or 
short, narrow, and stumpy. 
From Mamestra this genus differs by the shorter palpi, the more re- 
tracted head, the superposed frontal tufts, the wing form, and in some 
instances by the pectinated antenne. 
From Morrisonia it differs in not having the divided thoracic crest, 
the thorax itself stouter, the abdomen not so long proportionately, and 
the primaries not retracted at anal angle nor strigate in type of macula- 
tion. 
From Stretchia (Perigrapha) the species differ in the thoracic tuftings 
and somewhat also in wing form. Strictly, only two of our species— 
curialis and dolosa—are congeneric with the European conspicillaris ; 
but there is no safe line for the separation of any of the species, save 
possibly patalis, which differs by the habitus, the short stumpy wing, 
somewhat depressed body, and simple male antenne. Antennal char- 
acters are weak in the hairy eyed genera, and so indeed are most others. 
It is difficult to timit the genera in this series, and comparative char- 
acters and habitus must serve largely as guides. The lines of demar- 
cation between this genus and Mamestra, Morrisonia, or even Tenio- 
campa are nowhere sharply defined and errors are easy, especially with 
imperfect or insufficient material. 
Proceedings National Museum, Vol. X V—No. 892. 
| Proc. N. M. 92-—5 
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