20 BULLETIN BROOKLYN ENTOM. SOC. VOL. VI. June 1883. ] 
The femur is usually the heaviest and strongest part of the leg, and 
it has a very limited range of variation: usually the three pair are of nearly 
equal length rather heaviest at base, and slightly decreasing in size toward 
the tip. erminia shows the widest departure from this form in one 
direction, the member becoming thin and a mere shell while Dichonia in 
Europe and Psew /ag/ossa in America marks the other extreme: the mem- 
ber being very heavy at base and suddenly and abruptly excavate near tip. 
The member is never armed in any way so faras I have observed : 
the clothing varies occasionally in the sexes, but these differences are 
best noticed in speaking of the different genera. 
The upper surface near the base is always grcoved to receive the 
coxa -— in the anterior most distinctly so, while the under side is more 
or less grooved to receive the tibia. Abnormally so in Dichonia and 
Pseudaglossa. 
The “bra is the member that shows the widest range of variation, and 
is the part that has been hitherto most used by the svstematist in separa- 
tine genera, ‘The anterior is always shortest, never equalling the femur 
in length and is never spurred as are the middle and posterior, but is 
often armed at tip with spines or claws — the under side has always an 
excavation varying in length and position, which is covered by a membra- 
neous, concavo convex lappet attached above, tapering to a point at tip, 
and ciliate at the sides: this is universally present throughout the noc- 
tuids and its variations are best noted when speaking of the various genera. 
Sexual modification, and abnormal developments are also best noticed in 
that connection. 
The middle sézae are usually about equal in length to the femora, 
generally heavier than the anterior, and always have a pair of terminal 
"spurs at the inner side : “these spurs are rarely of equal length — most 
nearly so in the first part of the family ; while usually the inner one is 
longest ; in some of the Dedfoids the outer is less than 4% the length of 
the inner. In the higher groups the spurs are covered nearly to the tip 
with scales, but the tip is bare and corneous. In the lower groups the 
clothing covers the tip and the spurs are more weak and membraneous, 
It is seldom that the middle tibiz are sexually modified; never except 
in clothing. and this variation in clothing will be hereafter noticed, 
The posterior “7a is always longest, always longer than the femur 
and often (in the De/foids) disproportionately long. It always has two pairs 
of spurs, one near the middle or 4 from tip, and another pair at tip. Where 
