262 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The first group of species of uncertain value is the so-called comma group; 

 this is named comma group because the species, so-called, resemble or 

 are variations of an European species, Pamphila comma. I think it 

 unwise to separate these forms of coinma and consider them species, as 

 the variation is almost endless, every locality seeming to produce a new- 

 one. I have received individuals of this group from Southern Texas to 

 Assiniboia, and how much farther north or south they are found I do not 

 know. Their western limit is the Pacific Ocean, and the eastern limit is 

 perhaps not well-defined, being somewhere in Canada, and as far east as 

 Colorado in the United States. I would limit the comma group proper to 

 Ruricola, Oregonia, Columbia.! Colorado, Nevada, Manitoba., Juba., 

 Assiniboia, and any others that people care to name after the special 

 localities where found. The fewer specimens one has of these variations 

 the better off he is in regard to being able to determine them — if he has 

 large series from various localities he is " at sea." I have recently 

 received a form from the mountains of Utah, which some ambitious 

 lepidopterist might like to call Utahensis. There is one other group that 

 presents some difficulty, and in which some species do not seem to me to 

 be clearly defined — they are sylvafioides, agricola, pratincola, milo, verus, 

 mystes,jiris. I do not mean to say that all of these are not valid species, 

 but that some of them seem variable and to run into each other, and 

 some are hard to separate. The remaining species, as a rule, are remark- 

 ably distinct and have excellent characters. There is much work to be 

 done in the genus in the way of correcting synonymy, and in a few cases 

 there are actual synonyms, but in comparison to the great number of 

 species the synonyms are few. As an example of the mixed synonymy, 

 the following may be cited : — 



Vitellins, Fabricius = Vitellius, Hubner == Delaware, Edwards. 



Arogos, Bdl.-Lec. = Vitellius, Abb-Sm., = Iowa, Scudder. 



All who have heretofore written on the subject have put arogos as a 

 synonym of cernes, but Boisduval and Leconte knew cernes, which they 

 figure, and also give a recognizable figure of arogos, a southern and 

 western species. I hope to monograph the genus some day, and desire 

 all the material I can get. I have all the species, with but few exceptions, 

 and am very anxious to get these, either by purchase or exchange. I 

 have been studying photography and the " half-tone " process, with a view 

 of illustrating these interesting Httle fellows, but their non-actinic colours 

 of black, yellow, orange, and red make them the most difficult things 

 imaginable to reproduce in this way. I think, however, there is a great 

 future for the illustration of natural history objects by photography. 



