52 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Feb., *2O 



in vertebrates, and therefore requiring different taxonomic 

 treatment, is the fact that the insect body is composed of 

 highly distinct (and so far as normally colored surface is con- 

 cerned of entirely separated) parts which may vary inde- 

 pendently in color, and to which certain colors may be sharply 

 restricted, conditions vastlv different from what may be 

 observed in connection with the continuous body covering 

 of most vertebrates. Two individuals of the eastern ruffed 

 grouse, for example, may agree in practically every detail of 

 color pattern, yet one be distinctly gray, the other decidedly 

 rufous in the general tone of its plumage. This type of color 

 variation is represented among insects by the red and yellow 

 color phases of various species of Erythroneura (Jassoidea; 

 Eupterygidae). Nevertheless these very insects exhibit an- 

 other type of color variation in which certain markings may 

 occur on the pronotum, scutellum, or other division of the 

 body, in a certain series of specimens of both sexes, and be 

 entirely lacking in another series, all of which, however, be- 

 long to what is considered a single species. 



It being true that very distinct color forms in a structurally 

 homogeneous complex, the species, are not unusual in insects, 

 sorting and naming them would seem to be demanded* by 

 the practical considerations of making a collection appear to 

 have really been classified, and to have names by which the 

 forms can be referred to in exchanging and in recording notes 

 upon them. If they are left unnamed no phase of studying 

 them will advance so rapidly, nor will final understanding of 

 them be reached so soon, as will be the case if they are des- 

 cribed and named. 



Naming these color varieties of insects is further desirable 

 because of the fact that due to lack of material there is no 

 certainty in many cases that the form may not be a subspecies. 

 A characterization and a name which will enable others to re- 

 cord similar specimens will bring out facts necessary to decide 



*See also Parshley. H. M. Psyche, Vol. 25, No. 3, June, 1918, p. 65, and 

 Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 

 No. 71, August, 1919, pp. 5-6. 



