Vol. XXXl] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 5! 



It would certainly seem that to use isolation as a reason for 

 calling forms species, although they overlap through indivi- 

 dual variations, is entirely out of harmony with taxonomic 

 principles that must guide the student in cases where isolation 

 does not enter into the equation. Rather the nature of the 

 characters must be relied upon, and according to the general 

 view, previously set forth, intergrading forms must be given 

 no more than subspecific rank, even though they inhabit ap- 

 parently isolated localities. 



Subspecies have not been very extensively used in ento- 

 mology, for the sufficient reason that existing collections, in 

 most cases, do not furnish enough material to enable the 

 student to decide whether intergradation in characters of 

 recognizable forms does occur, or if it does whether the forms 

 have more or less separable ranges. However, work should 

 be directed toward the recognition of subspecies, for the 

 subspecific system of nomenclature is of too great value in 

 expressing the facts of relationship and geographic distribu- 

 tion to be ignored. 



The category of variety has been very extensively used in 

 entomology, but in a number of distinct senses; for instance, 

 it has been used to designate variants in size, structure and 

 color and varying ranks of all of these. Often no doubt the 

 form so designated is a subspecies or geographic race, but in- 

 formation warranting a positive decision on this point is lack- 

 ing. Care should be taken, however, to make sure whether 

 the evidence will not permit a more definite disposition of the 

 form. 



Color forms that occur more or less throughout the range 

 of a species are frequent among insects, apparently more so 

 than in any other group of animals. In mammals melanistic 

 forms occur, in birds these dark forms also are found, as well 

 as in certain cases reddish and grayish forms, but the practice 

 has been not to recognize these in nomenclature. In the 

 case of color forms, however, it seems necessary to go a step 

 farther in entomology than has been done in the taxonomy 

 of the warm-blooded vertebrates. 



A very cogent reason for believing certain types of color 

 varieties of insects to be distinct in character from coloi phases 



