NO. 1203. NEW NOCTUID MOTHS— SMITH. 463 



This species, represented by a single, somewhat rubbed male, offers a 

 number of characters that make its removal from Mamestra probable 

 when better examples of both sexes are available. As it stands now 

 it belongs next to gnata, because the antenna has the joints distinct 

 and laterally with small tufts. The head is retracted though broad, 

 front very flat, palpi small. Thorax quadrate, vestiture loose, diverg- 

 ent. Collar and patagiiv well marked, but dorsal tuftings obscure. 

 Primaries abruptly widened at transverse anterior line, thence nearly 

 parallel to the rounded hind angle, outer margin very oblique, making 

 a long drawn out though rounded apex. The fringes are wanting in 

 the specimen. This wing form is not paralleled elsewhere in the genus; 

 but I have been unable to find any better place for it and prefer not to 

 make a generic type of a defective specimen. 



59. MAMESTRA BOLTERI, new species. 



Ground color a dull, reddish luteous, shaded with smoky. Head yel- 

 low, with a smoky interantennal shade. Collar yellow at tip. Tho- 

 racic tuftings yellow tipped, disk of patagia smoky. Primaries with- 

 out contrasts, the median lines diffuse, smoky and broken, the sub- 

 terminal line pale and forming the most obvious feature in the macula- 

 tion. Basal line smoky, marked chiefly by the included space, which 

 is of the ground color and breaks the dusky shading in the upper half 

 of the basal space. Transverse anterior line smoky, geminate, broken, 

 diffuse, a little oblique outwardly and irregular in the interspaces. 

 Transverse posterior line geminate, smoky, diffuse, broken, included 

 space of the ground color, rather abruptly bent below the subcostal 

 over cell and incurved below that point. Subterminal line pale, dis- 

 tinct, relieved and made prominent by continuous dusky shadings on 

 each side, only a little irregular in course. A series of small, black, 

 terminal lunules. Fringes long, yellowish at base, with a diffuse, dusky 

 interline, reddish at tip. Median shade diffuse, darkening the space 

 between the ordinary spots, then rather close to and parallel with the 

 transverse posterior line. Claviform very small, vaguely outlined, 

 relieved by a few yellow scales. Orbicular small, round, a little paler 

 than ground color, and so defined by the contrast with the surround- 

 ing shade. Eeniform moderate, upright, only a little constricted, outer 

 and upper portion a little yellowish, inner and lower portion smoky. 

 Secondaries uniformly smoky, with a yellowish, somewhat glistening 

 shade, fringes long, yellow at base, more whitish at tip, with an inter- 

 mediate smoky line. Beneath, primaries smoky, a little paler along 

 costa, where an extra-median line is indicated, and on the fringes. 

 Secondaries more reddish, powdery, with a small discal lunule and a 

 somewhat diffuse, extra median line. 



Expanse, 37 mm. = 1.48 inches. 



Habitat. — Las Vegas, Kew Mexico (A, Bolter). 



A single female, in excellent condition as to wings, but thorax com- 



