15 
2. Family: Noctuidae. 
As has been asserted several times in this work and also mentioned on p. 2 in commenting upon 
the ,,Noctuiformes i< ’, the elaboration of the Noctuids will as much as possible follow Sir George Hampson’s 
excellent ,,Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae“. But as the ,,Acronyctinae li of our Vol. Ill have been 
published before Hampson’s elaboration of this group, we have here kept up the former division and deli¬ 
mitation in order to agree with the previously extensively utilized Noctuid system of Herrich-Schaffer, which 
had even been used already before this author (by Ochsenheimer and Treitschke) with respect to the 
Acronicta- group, and had been but slightly altered by Lederer in his European Noctuinae. Hampson 
enumerates the Acronicta- like Noctuae that had formerly been comprehended, the Mominae and Bryophilinae 
remotely apart from each other, inserting the Mominae yielded from furry larvae between the Catoca- 
linae and Plusiinae (= Phytometrinae), whilst he places the Acronicta into a narrower group with the Prodenia 
and Atethis (= Caradrina), inserting the Bryophilinae between the Eriopus and the Polyphaenis (with matura 
Hfn.) ; these are places where but few will look for them and where they only could be brought to by enti¬ 
rely shutting out the larvae. 
Except this group, the Noctuid system employed here chiefly follows Hampson’s Catalogue from 
which also numerous figures were copied. 
The other subordinate groups can with greater facility follow the catalogue of the British Museum 
since there exists hardly any polytypical genus of Noctuids that is not represented in America. The total 
number of American Noctuid species known already approaches 10 000 to-day. Dyar mentions (1902) for 
Boreal America (to the north of Mexico) 2126 species which number will have increased again by this time. 
The Colombian expedition of the collector A. H. Fassl alone yielded more than 100 new American species 
of this family, and as great districts of Central South America are still entirely unexplored, Ave max expect 
an enormous increase of neAv descriptions of American Noctuae. 
Of the first, above-mentioned division of the Acronictinae above all the Acronicta themselves are 
excellently represented in America, especially in the boreal parts, in contrast with the Indian region where 
only the green Canna and the large Trisuloides have become known in some conspicuous forms, the real 
Acronicta, however, only in a dozen of species, and particularly also in contrast with Ethiopian Africa where 
the genuine Acronicta are absent altogether. 
The same as in the typical Acronicta is also the case in the Mominae, of which 50 percent of all the 
species known are confined to America, Avhereas the small group of Bryophilinae is scarcely to be found 
in America: we only meet there with 3 Bryophila (Metachrostis ) from among wellnigh 50. 
Exceedingly great, however, is the number of Euxoinae or Agrotinae as the group is generally called. 
It is cosmopolitan, and the immense number of specimens in which many species occur forms the essential 
part of the insect-fauna of all the temperate and warm countries. If they do not appear to predominate 
so much in the tropics as other Noctuid groups, this impression may be due to their keeping very well 
hidden in day-time. Whosoever is hunting with the lantern in open districts, even in deserts destitute of 
vegetation, will find that nearly in all the zones the Euxoinae number among the most common lepidoptera. 
Particularly in grassy steppes the lanterns are alive with Agrotis at night, even where not one specimen was 
encountered in daytime. And such grassy steppes form a great part of the American Continent: to the north 
the prairies, in the neotropical north the llanos, and to the south the pampas. 
Almost the very same is the case with the PLadeninae being mostly recognizable by the unarmed 
tibiae. They also exhibit a just as great homogenousness in the shape as in their distribution. Some Ameri¬ 
can Folia, such as P. imbrifera, grandis or nimbosa are rather conspicuous forms, and the Hadena meridio- 
nalis frequently flying to the lanterns in Southern Brazil is remarkable for its elegant marking. Though 
we do not meet with such charming insects in America as the Indian Polytela (Vol. XI, t. 11a, b) are, yet 
there are species such as the well-known Xanthopastis timais already figured by the most ancient authors, 
standing forth from the great number of its otherwise homogeneous allies by its conspicuous colouring and 
marking. The so-called Leucanii-forms, the Hyphilare, Sideritis, Meliona etc. are mostly common in America 
as well as in the Old World, and some, such as Sid. unipuncta often does great harm there, particularly to 
the sugar-cane and maize, as well as to other produce of the fields. 
