136 TWENTY- SIXTH REPORT ON THE STATE MUSEUM. 



he has not been able to rear it to the imago. Mr. L. Trouvelot 

 writes me that he had taken the larva several times, but had never 

 been able to raise the imago. On one occasion he had found it in 

 August, fully developed, on a willow bush growing on a stream, in 

 the White Mountains. Mr. Packard states (loc. cit.) that it "is 

 figured in the Harris Correspondence as Acronycta acrisf var. 

 Americana," but I do not find any reference to it in the Corres- 

 pondence as acris. As the imago was bred by Harris (he states 

 that it appeared June 28th), it may possibly be identified in the 

 Harris collection.* It may, therefore, be presumed to have been 

 correctly referred generically, for although the larva differs remark- 

 ably from all other known American forms of Acronycta, yet we 

 may recall the great diversity existing among the European Acro- 

 onyctas in their forms and especially in their garniture, perhaps 

 exceeding that in any other genus. Some of these are described 

 as having a few short, isolated, fine hairs; some have quite long 

 soft, silky hairs covering the entire surface; in others the body is 

 adorned with long diverging pencils, and others present short, stiff, 

 brush-like tufts. Guenee says of ligustri and brumosa, "on ne 

 compte plus qu'un seul poil, et ce poil est chez I'alni, renfle a 

 Pextremite en maniere de rame ou de massue." The hair mentioned 

 in the last species is probably very similar to those which character- 

 ize the Americana Harr. MS., which I have designated as bristles, 

 although (from memory) they are flattened and lack rigidity. 



This species should not be confounded with Apatela Americana 

 of Harris, which is Acronycta hastulifera (Sm.-Abb.) Guen., an 

 entirely different insect. 



* I have since received a communication from Mr. Sanborn, in which he writes 

 me as follows : 



" I visited Boston yesterday, and hunted up the species of Acronycta about which 

 you inquire. It is in the Harris cabinet, together with its puparium, numbered 287 

 (new No). I cannot describe it from memory sufficiently well to enable you, in all 

 probability, to identify it ; but if you take an A. occidentalis Grote, and suffuse very 

 darkly the inner third of the fore-wings, and deepen the tints of the costal spots, 

 you will have a fair idea of it. It is totally unlike the Americana. It reminds 

 one also of the figure of Microccdia mnnula Grote, in the Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil. , vol. 

 II, pi. 9 [now Acronycta mnnula Grote ; Bui. Buf. Soc. Nat. Sci., I, p. 78]." 



The above comparisons of Mr. Sanborn should give a good idea of the imago, but 

 I am unable to refer it to any species with which I am acquainted. Now that the 

 preservation of the Harris specimen of the bred imago is known, we shall be able to 

 ascertain what it is, although not in season, I regret, for the present publication. 



