50 INSECUTOR INSCITI^ MENSTRUUS 



A NOTE ON BELLURA GORTYNOIDES WALKER 



(Lcpidoptera, Noctuidce) 



By HARRISON G. DYAR 



Hampson placed Arzama densa Walker as a synonym of 

 Bellura gortynoides (Cat. Lep. Phal. Brit. Mus., ix, 261, 1910) 

 on the assumption that both had a smooth clypeus. Later 

 Barnes and McDunnough, on reexamination of the type, find 

 that Arzama densa has a tubercle on the clypeus (Cont. Nat. 

 Hist. Lep. N. A., ii, 200, 1914), and they resurrect the genus 

 Arzama, making Sphida a synonym of it. They remark that 

 "it is quite generically distinct from Bellura gortynoides/' 

 but it does not appear that they actually examined the type of 

 the latter in detail. A number of specimens are before me, 

 identified as Bellura gortynoides, all of which on careful ex- 

 amination show a tubercule on the clypeus. I suspect, there- 

 fore, that this may be the case in Walker's types also. If so, 

 Hampson's synonymy of densa = gortynoides may be restored, 

 and anoa Dyar will probably also fall into the synonymy, as it 

 seems to be only a dark suffused specimen. A more serious 

 consequence would be that the species without a clypeal tubercle 

 will be without a generic name. I propose Arzamopsis, type 

 Arzama diffusa Grote. This species has a smooth front. The 

 other form going with it, melanopyga Grote, has in a type 

 before me no tubercle; another specimen, however, has a small 

 trace of tubercle, a small white spot, visible to the lens, though 

 easily passed over with a pin. 



Arzama matanzasensis, new species. 



Intermediate between obliqua Walk, and anoa Dyar. Wing- 

 shape of anoa, markings of obliqua, more reddish, the basal- 

 costal pale area less contrasted ; median area broadly dark- 

 shaded and with an oblique mesial line as in anoa. Expanse, 

 50 mm. 



Type, female, No. 25048, U. S. Nat. Mus. ; Matanzas, Cuba, 

 July, 1902 (W. Schaus). 



Date of publication. January 31, 1922. 



