THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 79 



jointed, jrd johif not incised. Abdomen small, slender, shining. First 

 segment equal in length to all the others. Length (dry) .08. 



This species is often quite abundant in the limited space where I have 

 found it. In describing the galls I should have added that the larva is 

 not enclosed in a larval cell. 



Habitat — Conn. 



LIMENITIS EROS versus VAR. FLORIDENSIS. 



BY THEODORE L. MEAD, NEW YORK. 



Among the generally accepted canons of nomenclature is the rule that 

 if a description includes two or more species, it shall be valid for neither 

 as against subsequent authors who discriminate the forms properly. 



While all of us may not be willing to push this rule to its Hmit and 

 reject the first name altogether, it certainly is a wholesome restriction 

 against a custom which has prevailed in some quarters, notably in France, 

 of making loose and indefinite descriptions, waiting until some more 

 careful writer has separated one of the forms as distinct and named it, and 

 then declaring that the latter was the species really intended by the 

 indefinite description, thus at one stroke of the pen creating a synonym 

 and finding a new species to be named. 



It seems to me that Mr. Strecker's reclamation as to Limenitis var. 

 Floridensis and L. Eros, on page 29, is of this nature. 



He speaks of his Limenitis as " the form found in the extreme south." 

 Now there is a darker form of Lini. Misippus at the south — some speci- 

 mens from West Virginia show a darker color than those from the Cat- 

 skills ; in Texas and even in Southern Illinois specimens are found of a 

 deep mahogany color. This is the " southern form " of Misippus which 

 differs notably from Eros in the absence of the white band on under side, 

 to which the mention of v. Floridensis does not allude. This mention, it 

 seems to me, is too brief and indefinite to rank as a description, especially 

 as the names have now been fixed by careful descriptions and the status 

 of Eros established as a distinct species. 



The New York Entomological Club has a committee whose duty it is 

 to consider cases of disputed nomenclature ; their decision, when ratified, 

 of course carries only the weight due to the unanimous opinion of the 

 entomologists composing the Club. But this is a gain over the unorganized 



