176 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ON SO-CALLED REPRESENTATIVE SPECIES. 



BY A. R. GROTE, A. M., BREMEN, GERMANY. 



The species of our insects having near allies in the better known or 

 earlier known European fauna, have been called " representative " by the 

 elder Agassiz. And this term would be sufficiently exact and useful did 

 we not associate with it the somewhat metaphysical sense, that these 

 forms were separately created and owe their resemblance to the arbitrary 

 will of the Creator. But the fact is that they are allied in blood, and we 

 have found that they were once indistinguishable members of a common 

 fauna. But now the American forms can be picked out with more or less 

 certainty, in their several stages, by experts, and, where this can be done, 

 the question comes up as to the designation to be employed. Shall we 

 call them varieties., geographical if you will, or species ? For my part, 

 having studied so many of these forms, I would give them separate 

 specific titles. For the reason that " we may regard theoretically all 

 species as only relatively stable ; practically we have ia find out the cycle 

 of reproduction and be guided by these results in our nomenclature."'* 

 And, further, because in one and the same fauna, species are so recog- 

 nized and so named, differing as slightly from each other as do these so- 

 called ''representative" species inhabiting different continents. I would 

 call, then, our Copper butterfly Chrysophaiius America/ius and not 

 phleas var. Americanus. Only where the insect intergrades, interbreeds, 

 is the term variety, I think, admissable. As a matter of fact, our Ameri- 

 can "representative" species do neither. I cannot too often insist that 

 we, as entomologists, are here to discriminate, to talk about and illustrate 

 the differences we find in insects, not to lump and to obliterate. From 

 observed distinctions are born those wider conclusions to which all 

 science tends. We need facts bearing upon each other. Here is a dif- 

 ference between the English and the Cjcrman mind. The latter is too 

 apt to be satisfied with the mere accumulation of learning, the compilation 

 of literary data, catalogues, the })iachinery o{ science. Forgotten papers, 

 interesting but barren incidents, a penurious dwelling on an undigested 

 mass of detail, these often suffice for the learned German. But the Eng- 

 lish mind uses all this as a workman does his tools. Darwin came, and 

 the before useless stores of facts were used to open our minds to the 

 state of things about us. 



* Grote. — The Hawk Moths of North America, p. 13. 



