95 



VII. A Study of North American Noctuldae 



BY AUa. R. GROTE. 

 [Rend before this Society, July 2(1, 1873.] 



In the present Paper I have continued my observations on the 

 Nortli American Noctuidae, preliminary to the publication of a 

 List of the species upon which I have been for some time at Avork. 

 The species, referred by M. Guenee to Iladena and Mamestra, I 

 have now examined for the first time, with a view of testing the 

 generic determinations of the celebrated French entomologist. I 

 have found on a near study, that these species are not generically 

 separable on the charactcrh .aid down in the Species (fcneral, and why 

 certain of the species are in that work referred to Mamestra instead 

 of Iladena, or the reverse, I have been unable to understand. 



I have then changed a number of M. Guenee's generic determina- 

 tions and have suppressed certain genera where I have become sat- 

 isfied that the distinctions are not valid. It is difficult for the 

 American student at first to study this Group without the preju- 

 dices he involuntarily entertains from the works of those English 

 and French authors, in which alone he finds our species described. 

 It is impossible to arrive at any critical views on the sulyect without 

 a study of certain German authorities, with whose generic concep- 

 tions, but more especially with wliose manner of zoological thought, 

 we have not been sufficiently familiar. It will be of no use to 

 attempt to write upon our Moths, without a study of the writings 

 of Lederer, Zeller and Ilerrich-Schaeffer. To the latter we owe an 

 appreciation of the characters oflFered by the venation and its cor- 

 rect terminology; to the former the most conscientious and strict 

 classification that has yet been offered to the student.' 



1 The student is also referred to the Annales de la Society Entomologique Beige, for a number 

 of praiseworthy observations on the Moths, as well as to Dr. Spcyer's work on the geograph- 

 ical distribution of the Lepidoptera of Germany and Switzerland. The former Society had the 

 lionor of printing Lederer's last communication, " Contributions a la Faune des L6pidopt6res 

 de la Transcaucasie." I need not say that the Wiener Entomologische Monatschrift is to the 

 student of to-day what the Wiener Verzeichniss was to the student of the last century, nor that 

 every word written by Lederer will make itself remembered. 



