ENTOMOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 173 



that they are distinct, he having reared numbers of the imagines of 

 both species from larvas presenting constant differential features. On 

 the authority of the same author, the females of lactucce and umbra- 

 tica are with difficulty separable. 



The genus is also very numerous in species. Guenee records forty- 

 four European species. Up to the present, only five* American 

 species had been described, but in all probability a number of others 

 will hereafter be detected. 



Of the species with which I am able to institute a comparison* 

 Speyeri stands between intermedia, ludfuga (nearer to the latter in 

 the gray and more distinct markings of the primaries) and asteroides. 

 The female bears a stronger resemblance to lucifuga than does the 

 male. In the white color and hyalescence of its secondaries, its 

 abdomen and brown scales of the tegulge, it approaches asteroides^ 

 but lacks the angulated white line near the internal angle character- 

 izing that species, asteris, postera, florea, convexipennis, etc. The 

 resemblance of the secondaries to those of asteroides is particularly 

 marked, only that in the latter species the border is less conspicuous. 



Having been informed by Mr. Herman Strecker, of Reading, 

 Penn., that he had in his cabinet an undetermined Cucullia, near to 

 intermedia, I submitted to him a photograph of the above species, 

 requesting its critical comparison with the species in his possession. 

 As these pages are passing through the press, I learn from him that 

 the two are identical, and that he has two examples of it which were 

 taken at Falls of Schuylkill, Philadelphia. It had also been taken, 

 he states, near Reading, and it did not appear to be more rare in 

 that vicinity than intermedia.^ 



*TheSe are asteroides Guen., postera Guen., florea Guen., intermedia Speyer, and 

 convexipennis Gr.-Rob. Chamomillce W.-V. is credited by Walker to the State of 

 New York and Hudson's Bay, but its occurrence in this country has not, that I am 

 aware, been confirmed. A species described as C. Yosemitce by Mr. Grote, has sub- 

 sequently been stated by its author not to pertain to the genus. 



Dr. Boisduval, in his Llpidopteres de la Californie, 1869, p. 89, credits the European 

 asteris to California, erroneously regarding it as identical with asteroides, stating of 

 it, " elevee de la chtnille par M. Lorquin sur le Solidago Canadensis. M. Guenee en 

 a fait une espece a part sous le nom d" 1 Asteroides." The two species differ so much 

 in their features, that the above error could not have occurred if examples had been 

 placed side by side for comparison. 



f Through the kindness of Mr. Strecker, I am in the receipt of one of the above 

 examples (a female), whereby I am able to verify his determination of the species. 

 It conforms to the typical examples as above described, with the single exception 

 that the anal tuft, instead of being flattened, is contracted to a point nearly as acute 

 as in the male, although not so long. 



