318 THE CANADIAN ENTUMOLOGIST. 



The species is really unique in many ways, and the sexual structures of 

 the male are characteristic and quite unlike those of the allied forms. 



In his reference to the species known as pacifica Auci., Mr. Dod 

 altogether ignores the fact that I pointed out and figured differences in the 

 genitalic structures of the males between the common eastern and the 

 common western forms, and that, before his staien)ent that the one was a 

 variety of the other could be properly accepted, it was "up to liim" to 

 prove that the differences figured were evanescent or non-existent. Instead 

 of that, he docs not even refer to ihcni. In view of recent developments 

 in other genera, this method of dealing with the subject will hardly be 

 accepted. 



Mr. Dod goes fufther, and says that my ^fasciata is also a mere 

 variation of /libisci, and then proposes latirena without description and 

 without type, for a form that supposedly is nol j/asa'aftt. He thus gives 

 us a mere name, that avowedly does not apply to anything, and instead 

 of wiiiing his own name after it he credits it to "Auct.," whoever that may 

 be in this case ; because, so far as I know, no one ever used that term 

 before. F"urihermore, j/<r5t7a/a cannot, as matters stand, be a form of 

 latirena; but latirena might be a form oi j/asciata; with almost as 

 unfortunate a result as making instabilis Filch a form oi hibisci Gn. 



looking over my material in this group, I find a series of rather more 

 than 40 examples included under the term pacifica, reckoning into this 

 also my y/asciata. Of alia (instabilis) there are thirteen, most of them 

 females ; as to localities, they extend across the Continent and down the 

 Pacific Coast to Alameda, California. 



This er.tire series was first separated out carefully inio groups, on 

 superficial characters, irrespective of localities, and the groups were after- 

 wards subgrouped according to distribution where there was any difference. 

 Finally, twelve males were selected to represent all possible subdivisions, 

 and of these the abdomens were removed, macerated in caustic potash 

 and the gerriialia afterward removed entire. 



It might be said here, that nowhere in this series were there hair- 

 pencils or other secondary sexual characters found anywhere on the abdo- 

 men. The dissections were made by me, carefully numbered to correspond 

 witli the specimens from which they were taken, and each suucture, after 

 being cleaned and washed, was placed by itself in a small vial with 

 sufficient carbolic acid to cover, and left to clear. The whole of the 

 dissected material was then turned over to Mr. (Irossbeck, who mounted 

 it on slides and made sketches of the various moimts without any 

 knowledge of the specimens from which they came. He selected out six 



