THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. .'!.'! 



outline of the fore wings. He marks it " Var. b.," evidently considering 

 erythrostigma as " Var. a.," though it is not so quoted. 



Did Speyer describe a new species by this process ? He specifically 

 declares that he does not, and states positively that the characters noted 

 by him are not constant. In the latter point he is correct, for, based on 

 his description, the name has absolutely no standing. 



Of this opinion was Mr. Grote, for in his list of 18S2 he cites 

 nictitans, Bkh., with two varieties — erythrostigma, Haw., and lucens, Tr. 

 Speyer's Americana is not cited at all, hence it was evidently considered 

 a synonym, for Mr. Grote certainly knew of Speyer's paper. 



In 1899, after a thorough study of the species of Hydroecia, I pointed 

 out a positive structural difference between the nictitans of Europe and 

 the form that had received that name here. I was the first to claim 

 specific standing for the American form, and the first to point out 

 its characters. Why am I not entitled to the species ? To call it by 

 Speyer's name would credit him with something he never did, and would 

 give him a species he never recognized, based upon the work done by me 

 twenty-four years later. 



The rule of priority is a great thing, but a little justice in its 

 application is not entirely undesirable. 



I am aware that this position is not entirely in accord with Canon 

 XXVII. of the A. O. U. Code, but it is nevertheless a fact that my name 

 atlantica is the first ever applied to the American species resembling the 

 European nictitans. John B. Smith. 



A FEW NOTES ON THE LEPIDOPTERA OF 1901 IN 

 SOUTHERN MANITOBA. 



BY E. FIRMSTONE HEATH, CARTWRIGHT, MAN. 



It is very curious and interesting, to observe the waves of insect life 

 that annually pass over this district. For instance, some four years ago 

 the genus Acronycta was strongly represented in some ten or twelve 

 species. The following season that genus almost disappeared, and 

 its place was taken by the old genus Agrotis, with its now numerous sub- 

 divisions. Last year the various species of the genus Carneades were 

 certainly in the ascendant, and occasionally there comes a year like this, 

 when perhaps only an odd species or two show up in any quantity, as was 

 the case more particularly with Carneades pitychrous, and while most of 



