220 THIRTIETH REPORT ON THE STATE MUSEUM. [108] 



XXI. ON THE IDENTITY OF HOMOPTERA LUNATA AND H. EDUSA. 



Phalcena (Noctua} lunata DRURY. Illus. Nat. Hist., App. vol. ii. 1773. 

 " " edusa " Illus. Nat. Hist, App, vol. ii. 1773. 



Noctua lunata WESTW.-DRURY. Illus. Exot. Entomol., v. i,p. 37, pi. 20. f. 3. 1837. 

 Erebus edusa, WESTW.-DRURY. illus. Exot. Entomol., v. ii, p. 46, pi. 24, f. 4. 1837. 

 Homoptera lunata GUENEE. Sp. Gen. Lep. Noct., vol. iii, p 12. 1852. 

 Edusa " Sp. Gen. Lep. Noct., vol. iii, p. 14. 1852. 



" Saundersii BETHUNE: in Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil., vol. ii, p. 215. 1865. 



H. lunata and edusa BEAN: in Canad. Entomol., vol. ix, p. 174. 1877. 



More than a century ago (in 1770), Drury, in the first vol- 

 ume of his admirable work cited above, illustrates a large and 

 beautiful' Homoptera from examples received from Virginia 

 and Carolina, to which, -in the appendix to the second volume, 

 he applies the name of Phalcena (Noctua} lunata. In the 

 second volume (in 1773), he describes and figures Phalcena 

 (Noctua) edusa, a form from New York, differing from the 

 preceding in having the sub terminal space of the brown wings 

 of a grayish or bluish white, which, on the superiors, is gath- 

 ered in two lunulated spots. 



From their wide distribution through several of the United 

 States, their comparative abundance and their marked beauty, 

 these two forms have found place in nearly every one of our 

 collections of Lepidoptera, under the above names, and not 

 unfrequently associated with their presumed companions of 

 the opposite sex. Yery recently, the interesting discovery 

 has been made that the two constitute but a single species. 



I was led to suspect the above relationship two years ago 

 from the study of a few examples in my collection, and accord- 

 ingly requested of some of my friends the careful inspection 

 of their future captures, with a view of determining this point. 



Since that time numerous examples of the two forms have 

 come under our observation, in all of which the females are 

 lunata and all the males " Edusa" As no other differences 

 except sexual are perceptible, beyond the colorational features, 

 there is no longer reason for questioning the identity of the 



