THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



gists of the Northern Trans-continental Survey collected in 1882, in 

 Oregon and Washington Territory, 129 specimens of C. Edwardsii^ among 

 which were two specimens like the one figured by Mr. Edwards as Chris- 

 thia % ; other specimens with a faint beginning of a border were taken 

 in copulation with C. Edivardsii, therefore the specimen figured by Mr. 

 Edwards as Chi-istma % is Edwardsii % . 



No orange male of C. Edzvardsii has ever been reported, nor were 

 there any among the specimens collected by Dr. Hagen and his associates, 

 but one or two males of Philodice suffused with orange have been taken, 

 and one orange male of Pelidtie from Labrador is recorded by Moeschler ; 

 therefore there is no improbability that a few may exist of Edwardsii, and 

 therefore Dr. Hagen comes to the conclusion that Christina cannot be 

 separated from Edwardsii. 



Dr. Hagen also complains that Mr. Edwards, while admitting that 

 Philodice varies " in size, in color, in the extent and contour of the mar- 

 ginal border, in the discal spots, in all the markings of the under side, and 

 in the degree of dusting of both sides," nevertheless uses these same 

 characters to separate the larger number of the American species of Colias. 



Now, though it is admitted that a very large' series of Philodice may 

 show variations in all of these characters, it is scarcely reasonable to say 

 that no weight should be attached to the fact that in one form nine speci- 

 mens out of ten are without a certain character, which is present in nine 

 out of ten specimens of another form. Dr. Hagen himself admits nine 

 good species of this genus as occurring in North America, and he surely 

 must use some of these characters in separating these species. At least 

 I fail to see how otherwise C. Interior can be separated from C. Philodice. 

 Besides it by no means follows that because two species of a genus may 

 vary extremely, all the others will vary to anything like the same extent. 



Mr. Strecker, in his illustrated work on Lepidoptera *, page 133, states 

 that Christifia is only a variety of C. Pelid^ie, and repeats the same in his 

 catalogue. 



Mr. Edwards has effectively replied to these statements on page 56, 

 Vov. xiv., of this journal, but I may be permitted to make a few remarks 

 on the same subject. 



In the first place Mr. Strecker's geography is sadly at fault when he 

 calls the region immediately west of Hudson's Bay the " New North and 



* Lepidoptera, Rhophaloceres and Heteroceres, Indigenous and Exotic, 



