Dec., '06] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 401 



and varieties are divided into three categories ; the geographical, the 

 seasonal and the individual variety. Subspecies is used in the sense of 

 essential variety, incipient species or geographical race. It is just here 

 that the personal equation comes in and we are of the opinion that this 

 work expresses fairly well the relative value of these forms, or as well 

 as may be at the present time, with the knowledge at hand. It will 

 probably be of interest to our readers to speak of the treatment of the 

 species found from Mexico northward. The name ajax is dropped and 

 our species becomes marcellus marcellus Cram. ; marcclhis floridensis 

 Holland ; marcellus telamonides Feld. ; marcellus lecontei Rothschild and 

 Jordan ; philenor philenor L. and philenor orsua Godnian and Salvin. 

 Machaon aliaska Scudder, does not differ in any essential way from the 

 Asiatic specimens. We have examples from Eagle City, Alaska, and 

 Sikhim that are identical. P. polyxenes becomes polyxenes stabilis 

 Rothschild and Jordan ; polyxenes asterius Cram. ; polyxenes polyxenes 

 Fab., and polyxenes brevicauda Saund. ; pcrgamus is given subspecific 

 rank. Cresphontes is considered distinct from thoas, and the latter 

 becomes thoas antocles Rothschild and Jordan. Troilus is divided into 

 troilus troitus L., and troilus texanus Ehrm. Glaucus becomes glaucus 

 glaucus L. and glaucus canadensis Rothschild and Jordan. We may 

 mention a few cases where there is much warrant for a difference of 

 opinion in regard to the standing of varieties. P. glaucus might be 

 more logically divided into three forms, the very large and dark Florida 

 form being of equal value to the boreal. The Cuban polyxenes shows 

 almost no difference of moment from specimens found in the United 

 States, the latter varying to a wonderful degree. Variety curvifascia is 

 said by the authors to occur from New Mexico, to Vera Cruz, Guatemala, 

 and West Mexico, a topomorph covering a great extent of territory, yet 

 it is not given subspecific value. It seems to differ to a greater degree 

 from asterius than does the Cuban polyxenes. Papilio bairdi is given 

 specific rank which is very doubtfully the case. It seems much more 

 nearly related to polyxenes than is americus Kollar. Variation has not 

 been sufficiently studied to permit of an exact nomenclature, and die 

 values of varieties are by no means parallel, and at present it is psycho- 

 logical so far as the individual observer is concerned. The authors had 

 a wealth of material for study, and the work shows the general result of 

 this in its broad treatment. The thoas group represents a special study 

 and a rather large number of names are proposed. We are inclined to 

 think many more names could be applied to some of the other species 

 on the same principles. Perhaps this would invalidate the argument on 

 page 429 in favor of trinomials in preference to citing localities, as the 

 locality would be more indicative of what is meant than a name, which 

 often indicates an inappreciable difference, difficult or almost impossible 

 to express in words. Such works undoubtedly cause an increased inter- 

 est in the group or groups treated and mooted points are more likely to 

 be elucidated thereby. H. S. 



