

%\t Carabimi Entomologist. 



VOL. VIII. LONDON, ONT., APRIL, 1876. No. 4 



THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE EARLY SPRING BLUES. 



BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



The simple fact which Mr. W. H. Edwards published in this journal 

 last May* has thrown great doubt over the relationship of all the 

 American species of Cyaniris. From eggs laid in September, 1874, by 

 C. Pseudargiolus, he reared in the following February C. violacea. From 

 this fact he is led to conjecture that in W. Virginia, where his experiments 

 were made, C. neglecta may prove to be a goneutic form of the same 

 species, reducing the entire series in that district to one. He also infers 

 that further north C. Lucia and C. neglecta are forms of one species, though 

 how this can be reconciled with the previous conjecture he does not 

 explain. 



Against the inference concerning C. Lucia and C. neglecta, Messrs. 

 Saunders and Lintner reasonably urget that C. Lucia is unknown in well 

 worked districts where C. neglecta is abundant. This would at first seem 

 to disprove any such relationship between them ; but when it is remem- 

 bered that C. Pseudargiolus exists in abundance in California,^in districts 

 well explored by resident collectors, while C. violacea (raised by Mr. 

 Edwards from C. Pseudargiolus) has not yet been found ; then we must 

 conclude either that the Pseudargiolus of California is a different species 

 from the Pseudargiolus of W. Virginia (whereas specimens from the two 

 countries are wonderfully alike), or else that C. neglecta may be geneti- 

 cally preceded by C. Lucia in one place and not in another. 



In writing to Mr. Edwards I also objected, as he remarks in a note 

 appended to his paper, that in Massachusetts C. neglecta, Lucia and violacea 

 all appear in May ; but this statement, as Mr. Edwards surmises, is incor- 

 rect, and must have been made from memory. To illustrate the subject 



* Vol. vii, pp. 81-2 . 



t This journal, vii, pp. 82 



