NO. 1203. NEW NOCTUID MOTHS— SMITR. 419 



ill a genus whicli seems peculiarly well adapted to the present con- 

 ditions, and therefore dominant. Superficial differences are small at 

 best, and, with only a small number of examples at hand, it is often 

 simply impossible to say whether we have a mere variation or a distinct 

 type. 



Gradually my collection has become filled with doubtful forms, each 

 lot received yielding some specimen a little unlike any other in my 

 possession. Of recent years Prof. C. V. Piper, of Pullman, Washington, 

 has sent me long series of the common types in his region; Dr. William 

 Barnes, of Decatur, Illinois, has sent me series taken at Glenwood 

 Springs, Colorado; Mr. A. W. Hanham, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, has 

 sent me material from that section, and Mr. F, H. Wolley Dod has sent 

 me many examples from Calgary. Other collectors have contributed 

 to a less extent, and I have rearranged the species, recognizing no less 

 than 50 as worthy of new names. This brings the number of known 

 forms to 175, and the end is not yet. I have yet more than a dozen 

 uniques, different from each other and apparently from any of the old 

 or newly described species; but because they are defective or are 

 females, I have not felt justified in giving them names at present. 



6. CARNEADES PUGIONIS, new species. 



Ground color luteous, shaded with yellow and smoky fuscous. Head 

 smoky, palpi yellow in front, and sometimes the head immediately 

 behind them is of the same tint. Collar bright yellow at base, smoky 

 fuscous above, the two shades divided by a narrow black line. Thorax 

 squared, patagia relieved, margined with gray or yellowish, submargin 

 blackish, disc gray, tuftings evident and gray or yellow tipped. Pri- 

 maries contrastingly marked with yellow, gray, and smoky brown or 

 blackish. Costal region bright yellow at base, gradually becoming 

 more whitish toward the transverse posterior line. Inner margin below 

 vein 1 yellow, shading to gray. A yellow shade begins above the clav- 

 iform in the submedian interspace, and extends through it into the 

 subterminal space. The subterminal space is gray or yellow beyond 

 the transverse posterior line, sending rays or daggers through the 

 terminal space to the outer margin on veins 3 and 4, and almost to the 

 margin on veins 6 and 7. The terminal space, except as interrupted, 

 is evenly dark or smoky, as is the cell, except the ordinary spots and 

 such portions of the median and basal space as are not contrastingly 

 yellow. Basal line wanting. Transverse anterior line evident as a 

 black oblique mark in the median cell, as an outwardly curved line in 

 the submedian interspace, and occasionally marked by a few scales 

 below vein 1. Transverse posterior line broken, a little lunulate, chiefly 

 marked by the difference in shade between median and subterminal 

 spaces, interrupted on the costa and in the submedian interspace. 

 Subterminal line pale, preceded by a series of interspaceal black, sagit- 

 tate spots and forming strong dents, cutting the terminal space on 



