3 
The writer has not had access to Herrich-Schaeffer’s Systematische 
Bearbeitung der Schmetterlinge von Europa, but judging by his Systematisches 
Verzeichniss der Europaeischen Schmetterlinge , which appeared in 1854 in 
the Korrespondenzblatt des zool. miner. Vereins in Regensburg, he made 
little alteration on Guen^e’s system, merely substituting the generic term 
Graphophora for Noctua. 
In 1857 Lederer published his well-known work, Die Noctuinen Europas; 
he discards the usage of any families or subfamilies and includes practically 
the whole group under the one generic heading “Agrotis,” subdividing 
the species, however, into numerous sections based on the shape of the 
male claspers (a distinctly new feature), the presence or absence of spines 
on the fore tibiae, and the male antennal structure. Until quite recently 
this system is the one which has been most generally followed by European 
authorities. 
The first real attempt at a classification of our North American species 
seems to have been made by Grote in 1874 (Bull. Buff. Soc. Nat. Sci. II, 9) 
who characterizes the genus Agrotis as follows: “Eyes naked, without 
lashes. Thorax without divided dorsal longitudinal or posterior scale tuft; 
abdomen untufted. Middle and hind tibiae always, fore tibiae sometimes, 
with spines.” Under this generic heading he includes all the Agrotids then 
known with the exception of an odd one or two placed in the genera Pleo - 
nectopoda Grt., Adita Grt., Eurois Hbn., and Ammoconia Led. 
In his 1875 Check List he abandons the genera Ammoconia and Pleon- 
ectopoda and sinks Eurois as a subgenus of Agrotis, using further Pachnobia 
Gn., Matuta Grt., and Anicla Grt., in a subgeneric sense. 
Several papers published by Grote during the next seven or eight years 
deal with the Agrotids, but offer little of real value as a basis for classi- 
fication. These are: 
On the Genus Agrotis with Additions to the List of North American 
Noctuidae (1875, Bull. Buff. Soc. Nat. Sci. II, 301); 
On the Genus Agrotis (1882, Can. Ent. XV, 51); 
Introduction to a Study of the North American Noctuidae (1883, Proc. 
Am. Phil. Soc., 134). 
The 1882 Check List in which Grote first uses the family name Noc- 
tuidae for the group embodies the results of these papers. Under this 
family name are included as genera, Agrotis (containing the bulk of the 
species), Anytus, Ammoconia, Pachnobia, Agrotiphila, Eucoptocnemis, and 
Adita. The 1883 Check List appended to his paper mentioned above is 
similar, with the addition of Carneades Grt. for two species with tuberculate 
front. In 1890 a Revised Check List of the North American Noctuidae was 
published by the same author, the group in question being designated as 
Tribe Agrotini of the subfamily Noctuinae. Though the bulk of the species 
still remain undivided in the genus Agrotis, the following generic terms 
are also employed for limited groups: Tryphaena Hbn., Eurois Hbn., 
Richia Grt., Anytus Grt., Adita Grt., Carneades Grt., Copablepharon Harv., 
Ufeus Grt., Pteroscia Morr., and Eucoptocnemis Grt. The author states 
that “the species of Agrotis need rearrangement. There should be first 
grouped together the forms with unarmed fore tibiae, then the male char- 
acteristics drawn from antennae and genitalia should be used to group the 
species.” 
