NO. 1203. 



NEW XOCTULD MOTHS— SMITH. 435 



little paler. The subterminal line is always obvious aud usually a 

 little paler; but it may be concolorous and only defined by the some- 

 what darker terminal space. There may be a preceding- dark or dusky 

 shade and this may be broken; but it never forms sagittate spots or 

 dashes, and it is never prominent. In no case is the terminal space 

 paler than the subtermiiial, or as pale as the lighter parts of the wing'. 

 There is no basal dasli or longitudinal mark of any kind. The claviform 

 is narrow, concolorous, very rarely completely outlined, sometimes a 

 mere blackish lunule indicating its tij); sometimes very short, some- 

 times extending to the middle of the median space; often very obscure, 

 but always traceable in good specimens. The orbicular is of good size, 

 black ringed, varying in shape from ronnd to irregularly oval, ofttimes 

 oblique. There is often a paler annulus within the black ring, and the 

 entire spot is usually even aud a tritle paler than the ground color of 

 the wing; rarely it is just a little powdery, but is never dark centered. 

 The reniform is always large, kidney-shaped, usually a little oblique, 

 outlined by blackish scales, and within this a paler annulus which is 

 only a slighter paler tinge of the ground and never .i)rominent. The 

 interior is also a little pale, but with a dusky powdering which yet 

 leaves the spot as a whole paler than its immediate surroundings. The 

 ground color of the primaries is a graying luteous with blackish pow- 

 derings and little if any trace of red or brown. The cell between and 

 beyond the ordinary spots is always a little the darkest portion of the 

 wing, and sometimes the space between the median shade and trans- 

 verse posterior line is also involved; but there are never any strong 

 contrasts. The secondaries are whitish, with a faint yellow tinge, 

 somewhat more pronounced in the female, and there is a smoky outer 

 border, varying in width, always undefined, very narrow ii! the male, 

 sometimes darkening almost half the wing in the female, especially 

 along the inner margin. 



The collar has always a black or blackish transverse median line. 



The expanse varies from 32 to 42 mm., but the great majority of 

 examples will be from 35 to 37 mm., without much diiference in favor of 

 the female. 



The 25 males and 14 females under observation are distributed as to 

 locality from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and there is no geographic 

 variation observable. 



The species has been thus carefully described as to its essential char- 

 acters that others allied to it, actually or superficially, might be differ- 

 entiated comparatively; and it is especially useful for this purpose 

 because it is at once the most abundant and the most widely distributed 

 of the forms, so that all collectors are most likely to possess examples. 



26. CARNEADES INCUBITA, new species. 



Is a close ally of messoria, from which it differs at first sight in the 

 darker, blackish gray, ground color. In the female there is hardly 

 a trace of the pale luteous ground, which is, however, easily seen in the 



