NOTES ON THE SYNONYMY OF NOCTUID MOTHS. 283 



Europe, Japan, and United States. In Coll. B. M. 



I fail to see any reason for separating American specimens 

 from those of Europe ; perhaps in a long series there may be 

 more starved specimens from the States than from Europe, 

 and the silvery subapical streak in the former is more fre- 

 quently narrow than in the latter. The Japanese examples, 

 as a fact, differ more, the metallic markings being larger and 

 more prominent than in European specimens ; but individuals 

 differ quite as much from one another. Without constancy no 

 distinction is worth consideration. 



Plusia verruca. 



Noctua verruca, Fabricius, Ent. Syst. 3, 2, p. 81, n. 238 

 (1794). 



Plusia rutila, Walker, Lep. Het. Suppl. 3, p. 837 (1865). 



United States, Jamaica, Venezuela, Bogota. In Coll. B. M. 



It is highly probable that Walker's and Fabricius' types 

 were from the same locality. 



Plusia striatella, Grote, is P. venusta, Walk., but I do not 

 know which name was first published. 



Walker's (supposed European) specimens of P. u-aureum are 

 undoubtedly P. hrassiccs, Kiley, and therefore have nothing in 

 common with the true P. u-aureum of America. I must say I 

 greatly doubt the original locality for the latter species, which is 

 certainly not a variety of P. inter rogationis as suggested by Dr. 

 Staudinger, being more nearly allied to P. octoscripta. 



Plusia hractea. 



Plialcena hractea, Schiffermiiller, Wien. Yerz. p. 314. 



Var. Plusia excelsa, Kretschmar, Berl. Ent. Zeit. 1862, 

 p. 135, pi. 1, fig. 5. 



Plusia metabractea, Butler, Trans. Ent. Soc. 1881, p. 190, 

 n. 75. 



Europe and Japan. In Coll. B. M. 



With our present series I find it impossible to maintain the 

 distinctness of P. excelsa = Dietabractea as a species. Plusia 

 octoscripta, Sanborn, is P. falcigera, Walker, but certainly not 

 Kirby's P. falcifera, which must be either P. pasipheia or an 

 allied species ; the description is so bad that nobody can possibly 

 decide the point without seeing the type. P. rectangula, Kirby, 

 is unquestionably Guenee's P. simplex, which it will supersede ; 

 it is quite evident that Kirby called the inner margin of the 

 primaries costal, as describers of Micro-Lepidoptera at the 

 present time call it dorsal, 



Plusia ignea, Grote, is regarded by its author as a synonym 

 of P. alticola. Walk. The species labelled as "P. alticola,'' and 

 which therefore I presume to be P. ignea, is quite distinct from 

 Walker's insect, which is more nearly allied to, though distinct 



