I'kIIhws: I'niihrid . si/.r l;ii'i;c. sccdiKl.irirs yellow .•iiul Mack, lind 

 joinls 111' )).il|)i sc.il((l il.'i\ .lie. .'(rd Joiiils porrrcl, four rows of 

 .spin< s oil tin liiiid III! I ,il arsi. i'lipidd, size modcralc, .secondaries 

 fliscoils. -iid |oiiils of palpi I riatii;iilarl y scaled, .'{rd joiiils pon-ect 

 but soniewlial I riaiiuid.arly scaled, lliree rows of spines on (lie hind 

 inelatarsi. Tims al llie oiilsel il would seein llial l.ampra inii;lil he 

 retained for llie I'.uropean species and J{hynelia<;rotis for llie Ameri- 

 can species. H(»\vever, it is inadvisabh- to base genera on color 

 characters, and they are llie only stable eharaclers sejiaratini? the 

 l"-uropean from I he Anieriean species. All other characters fail, 

 because in joiitlinm (he spines on I he hind inelatarsi are reduced 

 to three rows and jiarl of a fourth. Ihe insect is even smaller than 

 the a\erai;-c viiphhi. Ihe black areas on the secondaries are greatly 

 increased and the L'nd ]ialj)al joints are less clavate tlian in fimbria. 

 The only remaining ]'",uro])ean species, interjecta lias but tbree rows 

 of sjiincs on the bind metatarsi, and tbe second joints of tlie palpi 

 arc more or less triangularl}' scaled, similar in all respects to ciipida 

 except in the color of tbe secondaries and that tbe tbird palpal 

 joints are not quite as triangularly scaled. Tbe difference in tbe 

 pal])i is not great. 



Genitalieally tbe European species comes nearest to tbe North 

 American ]5runneicollis Group, which they strongly resemble in 

 simplicity of structures. 



Smith included in bis genus Rbyncbagrotis, two species with 

 yellow and black secondaries, viz: gilvipennis, Grt. and chardinyi, 

 JBdv. 



Hampson separates these from his genus Tripbaena because of 

 the rounded abdomen. (Capt. Lep, Phal. B. M., IV., 648, 1903) 

 and places them in "Rbyncbagrotis, Smith." He cites the reference 

 for this genus as, Bulk. U. S. N. M., # 38, p. 13, and this has 

 led him to an error, for following page 13 is gilvipennis, which 

 Hampson takes as type ; erroneously cited as chardinyi. . Smith 

 definitely designated cupida as bis type of Rbyncbagrotis on p. 9 

 of tbe same work. 



That Smith did not like this restriction of bis genus is ap- 

 parent from his last paper on this group, published in Can. Ent., 

 XL. 221. 1908. At any rate, tbe genus has to fall to Lampra 

 and cannot be retained even as a subgenus. As tbe bodies of 

 gilvipennis and chardinyi are quite different from those of the 

 normal species of the genus Lampra, they apparently need a new 

 genus which is hereby designated as Cryptocala with tbe type 

 gilvipennis, Grt. 



^lost authors of the present day agree that in Lepidoptera at 

 least, sexual characters should not be used to designate genera. 

 Therefore, Abagrotis, Smith (Bull., U. S. N. M., XXXVIII, 9, 49, 

 1890) will sink before Lampra, Hbn. (Verz., 221, 1822) ; but may 

 be retained as a subgenous with erraiica as type. 



74 



