1874.] 287 [Riley. 



most persistent basally above median vein ; orbicular spot, when not 

 obsolete, small, pale, and either round or ovate ; claviform spot short, 

 never extending farther than the orbicular ; the pale interior line ob- 

 solete above, elbowed outwardly below median vein; the basal half- 

 line which in A. subgothica forms an angle with it, obsolete. Antenna? 

 of the male with beautifully fringed pectinations, nearly six times as 

 long as the diameter of the main stem. 



It varies considerably. The primaries of the more obscure form 

 may be described as of a uniform dark gray-brown, with two pale 

 carneous-gray dashes along the inner middle of the wing, and bor- 

 dering the median vein and veins 1 and 2; the subterminal line 

 indicated by interspaceal pale dots, and the other transverse lines 

 indicated only on costa, by similar pale dots, relieved by dots of deep 

 brown; in the more distinctly marked specimens the ground color is 

 paler, leaving the terminal space, that between the reniform and or- 

 bicular spots, and that between the claviform spot and the exterior 

 lines, dark ; the orbicular is pale, and the dark reniform and claviform 

 spots are strongly relieved with deep brown ; the exterior line less 

 broken and also relieved basally by deep brown, short, sagittate spots, 

 while the posterior and inner borders are finely lined with the same 

 deep brown; the pale color also extends through the subterminal 

 and terminal spaces along veins 3, 4, and 7. 'Secondaries pale nacreous- 

 gray, with but a slightly deeper shade around the posterior border. 

 Underside pale, with a prominent discal dot on each wing. 



Described from two. males and six females, all reared from the 

 larva?. 



Compared with the well known A. subgothica, as recently defined by 

 Mr. Grote, it is at once distinguished by the very strongly pectinate 

 male antennas, the broader fringes, more uniform thorax, duskiness of 

 the ordinary spots, greater paleness of the median space along vein 

 1, and by the subterminal line being relieved with deep brown basally 

 instead of posteriorly. 



It is the analogue of the European A. vestigialis, and the differences 

 between the two are more easily apprehended from the specimens, 

 than described. The European insect, from two specimens kindly 

 furnished by Prof. P. C Zeller of Stettin, is paler, with the ground 

 color more suffused with ferruginous, the pale color broader along the 

 median vein and extending around the claviform, while it is less dis- 

 tinct along vein 1. 



The question whether the many species of our Noctuidse, which 



