)d 



THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Now what are the known facts about Proserpina ? 



1. The species Arthemis, black, with a broad common band of white 

 across the disks, occupies the whole northern part of the continent, from 

 ocean to ocean, and from the Arctic Circle to northern Massachusetts and 

 westward to Wisconsin. 



2. Along the southern border of the range of Arthemis, in certain 

 localities only, there flies, and constantly associates with it, a small black 

 form agreeing exactly with it in size and in outline of wings. This form 

 may either be without a white stripe across the disks {vide Butt. N. A., 2, 

 pi. 36, fig. 5), or it may present such a stripe corresponding in position 



those in universal employment, urge upon entomologists the desirability of ignoring the 

 names so brought forward until such time as the method of dealing with them shall be 

 settled by common agreement. 



W. Arnold Lewis. 

 Frederick Bond. 

 J. Jenner Weir. 

 E Shepherd. 

 Edw. \V. Janson. 

 Edw Newman. 

 E T. Higgins. 

 B. F. Logan. 

 J. Greene 

 Thos. H. Briggs. 

 W. C. Boyd. ' 



" (Signed) H. W. Bates, 



Alfred R. Wallace. 

 Wm. C. Hewitson. 

 Francis P. Pascoe. 

 T. Vernon Wollaston. 

 John A. Power. 

 Samuel Stevens. 

 Edward Sheupard. 

 Ferdinand Cirut. 

 J. W. Dunning. 

 Frederic Moore. 



Howard Vaughan. 



And following this : " Professor West wood stated that ... he considered a law 

 similar to that which limits wdverse claims to real property in this country to a period of 

 twenty years, might with equal advantage be applied in zoology." 



Now. since 1872, there has been no '"common agreement" by entomologists as 

 "to the method of dealing" with these " f rgotten names," and the question stands 

 j 'St where it stood then. Mr. Scudder, apparently, in order to get some show of au- 

 thority for resurrecting dead names, has followed he says, ' the rules laid down by the 

 American Ornithologists Union " ! (What have entomologists to do with the rules of 

 American Ornithologists ?) And so he ;lisp!aces a large proportion of the recognized names 

 in American lepidopterology for dead and forgotten, and what is worse, often wholly un- 

 authenticaled ones. Thus we get Dauais Plexippus for D. Archipptis (in his earlier 

 writings he called it D. Erippus). Limenitis Archippus for /,. Disippus, Papilio Pol- 

 yxeves for /'. Asterias, Neonympha Eurydice for N Catithiis (absolutely without any 

 right whatever), N Pliocion for N. Areolatus, N. Cornelhis for N. Getuma (both these 

 unauthenticated), etc , etc , without end. One of the strangest changes of all is that of 

 Papilio Tiirnus into P Glaitais Imnus has been descri' ed 119 years, and during the 

 entire period has been known by that name alone. C/a^/rz/j' was described 126 years 

 ago from one sex only It is not a species at all. it is the black dimorphic female of 

 Tumiis, and it has no corresponding male It is scarcely twenty years since this fact 

 was made known As a dimorphic form it needs a distinguishing name It is the 

 practice to give such forms names. Mr. Scudder now calls the entire species Glaucus, 

 but to get a name for the black female he calls it Glaucus- Glaucus ! and there is no 

 Turnus any more Is not that a precious device ! I advise every lepidopterist to ignore 

 such changes, one and all, and to adhere to the accustomed names, nearly every one of 

 which has a full century of undisputed title. 



