py 
Grote.] 138 {June 16, 
under an amended nomenclature, Dr. Harvey and Dr. Packard have 
shown that the term Cymatophora is to be applied to a genus of Geome- 
tride. The terms Bombyciwv and Noctuobombycint have not a proper form. 
Only one of the genera comprising it is beyond dispute, and is represented 
in Europe, Asia and America by distinct species, viz. : Thyatira. I shall 
call this group, then, Thyatirida. It differs by the course of vein 8 of the 
secondaries, and the position of vein 5 of the primaries from all the rest of 
the Noctwde. The second family is the Moctuidw proper. Tt contains 
subfamilies, which I have designated in my ‘‘ New Check List,’’? and which 
I discuss here so far as the present, paper extends. Other writers have seen 
in it three principal groups, the Non-fasciate of Borkhausen (= Noctuinw 
of Packard) and the Fasciatw (= Catocalinw Pack.) ; also the Deltoides of 
Latreille, so called from the wings in repose forming the outline of the 
Greek letter Delta (4). At the time of writing his paper, Dr. Packard 
seems to have regarded the latter as Pyralide. It is not possible to sepa- 
rate them from the lower Noctuidw as shown by Dr. Herrick-Schieffer. 
They fall into two subfamily groups: the Hermindina and Hypenine. The 
differences between these groups are a mere extension of the general com- 
parative characters by which smaller assemblages of genera may be de- 
fined. I have restricted Dr. Packard’s terms to two special groups of 
smaller extent, and these I believe to have an equivalent value to his sub- 
family groups in the Geometridw, and which T have discussed above. We 
have then in the Noctuidee primarily three families : 
Nh Nl a Ne Bi 
II. NOCTUID A. 
III. BREPHID 2. 
This last, again, a group of very limited extent, destitute of ocelli, 
broad winged and hirsute, has vein 5 midway between 4 and 6, but 
differing by the neuration of secondaries from the THyaTrRip A. 
In the Thyatiridw no subfamily groups seem to me recognizable since 
the discovery of our Western forms, 7hyatira Lorata and Bombycia semi: 
cirewlaris. At first sight the genera Leptina and Bombycia (= Cymato- 
phora), and again the genera Thyatira, Pscudothyatira and Habrosyne 
(= Gonophora) seem torafford two series which in the European fauna 
appear distinguishable. Tlubner was the first to associate these genera, 
some of the earlier European writers classifying Tiyatira with Plusia. In 
our fauna Pseudothyatira stands nearest to Habrosyne, while our species of 
Thyatira approach our two Bombycide in several respects. 
The general characters of the moths of the NoctuidwI have thus gone 
over quite fully, and I now mention those of the subfamily groups, after a 
few remarks which suggest themselves to me, since I finally deal with the 
subject after a quarter of century.of more or less continuous study of it. 
As to nomenclature, the Preface to Staudinger and Wocke’s Catalogue 
seems to me to give the most practical and feasible rules whereby the 
choice of names is to be regulated. There should be a uniformity in 
