54 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Feb., '2O 



are is unimportant, and the writer's contention is, that we 

 shall be much longer learning what they are, unnamed, than 

 if named. 



Discovery of their real nature is work for an institution 

 having extensive facilities for insect breeding, and is a project 

 most systematists would like to see undertaken. 



Some insect varieties may have a genetic significance which 

 when understood will indicate the proper taxonomic treat- 

 ment. It is possible, even probable, that some varieties may 

 be found, also, to be correlated with definite food plants or 

 peculiar local habitats. Proof of such a relation would call for 

 recognition of a new type of subspecies in which the geogra- 

 phic element of subspecies, as at present recognized, would 

 be replaced by an ecologic factor in other words it may be- 

 come necessary to recognize two sorts of subspecies namely 

 geographic and ecologic. 



Some discussion touching upon personal experiences in 

 connection with insect varieties may perhaps be pardonable. 

 The writer has freely named color varieties and. has had it 

 called to his attention that others could not commend his 

 activities in this direction. Regarding the varieties in ques- 

 tion, the comment has several times been made: "But they 

 all run together." Of course they do, otherwise they would 

 have been ranked as species not as varieties. This remark 

 illustrates the lack of definite conceptions on the part of 

 some entomologists of the nature of the subordinate taxono- 

 mic groups, and is one reason for the writing of this paper. 



When a large proportion often as high as 90% of the indivi- 

 duals of a color variety can be sorted out without any hesi- 

 tation as to their similarity to ach other and as to their dis- 

 tinctness from coordinate groups of the species complex, in 

 the writer's opinion, they should be named. Intergrading 

 specimens may be placed with the variety to which they are 

 most similar, not left standing about like wall-flowers. In- 

 tergrades should bring consternation neither to the careful 

 systematist nor to the neat curator. They are inevitable, 

 should be taken frankly for what they are and treated accord- 

 ingly. In all consideration of taxonomic categories, it should 



