No. 2.] GROTE ON NORTH AMERICAN MOTHS. 269 



I tliink Marginidens will prove to be founded on larger and darker speci- 

 mens of Butila, but of this I am not certain. Harrisii lias the t. p. line 

 thick, not bent opposite the cell, but with a slightly rounded costal pro- 

 jection, and double. In Furpurifaficia the 1. 1). line is thick and straight, 

 angulatedjust at the costa,the angulation sharper than in Harrisii^ than 

 which it is more orange and freer from fuscous shadings. It will be quite 

 difficult to separate Sauzalitae and Harrisii from the markings, but the 

 t. p. line is a little more drawn in below median vein in the Californian 

 species, in which the clypeus is mucronate, while in Harrisii it is smooth. 

 In Sauzalitae the projection is perpendicular and wedge-shaped; it can 

 be felt with a fine pin, and under the glass readily perceived. In Buffa- 

 loensis the clypeus has a central conical projection, rising from all sides 

 to a blunt point. On account of this bulging of the clypeus I have re- 

 garded Sauzalitae and Buffaloensis as congeneric with theEuroiiean Och- 

 ria Flavago. 



Mr. Thaxter has a fine series of Quaesita and Rigida. The former, 

 with its evenly dark orange red color and the strong angulation of the 

 median shade and outward rounding of the t. p. line, is very distinct ; 

 in some varieties the anterior stigmata are white. In its total appear- 

 ance this species recalls Nictitans var. Lucens, while larger, and quite dif- 

 ferent in the details of its markings. Bigida is the palest species. Of 

 a light straw yellow with purplish contrasting s. t. space and terminal 

 shadings, the concolorous spots finely outlined, it vaguely recalls the 

 Euroi)ean Bicycla Oo, without the red markings. It differs from Cata- 

 phracta again by the rigid t. p. line, and is perhaps usually a smaller 

 insect. Gortyna limj^ida may be distinguished from Cerussata by its 

 smaller size, darker color, and the shape of the reniform. In Cerussata 

 the reniform is long and narrow, the central bent yellow line surrounded 

 by small white spots as is usual, but the whole reniform is longer and 

 narrower than in auy of the allied species. Of the other allied species 

 with white spots, Serrata from the West may be known by the pecti- 

 nated male antennae. Speciosissima, the largest and finest of them all, 

 an Eastern form from Ehode Island (Mrs. Bridgham) and Massachusetts 

 (Mr. Thaxter), has very marked characters and needs no further com- 

 ment. Including the section Apamea, which I have discussed in the 

 pages of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phil- 

 adelphia, p. 205, 1874, and the two forms I have referred, as above noted, 

 to Ochria, we have twenty-three species in our fauna which may be con- 

 sidered as belonging to Gortyna Hiibner. For a notice of the generic 

 synonymy I refer the student to the Check List of JS^octuidae, Part 2, 

 p. 37. 



Orthosia decipiens n. s. 



$. This form, although larger than a>nj ferrugineoides, at first seems 

 to be a variety of that protean species ; it differs by the clear yellowish, 

 unhanded secondaries, and in this approaches ralla. As to the latter, its 



