THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 245 



determinations made by myself and Mr. Robinson, and later by Prof. 

 Fernald, before the Walker collection was meddled with, are entitled 

 to credit. In other cases we must fall back on the description in the B. 

 M. Cat., bad as this may be. Anything which contradicts a supposed 

 identification should be sufficient to overturn it, no matter what the 

 so-called "type" may be. 



A. exilis, Grote. 



I am glad this form, or species, is at last differentiated and that the 

 correctness of Mr. Butler's earlier remarks is vindicated. 



A. insolita, Grote. 



The type was not originally a " very poor " specimen. After 

 description it became entirely greasy, and I bathed it in ether, which 

 gave it a somewhat crumpled look. The original colour and marks came 

 out again, however ; the blackish general hue, against which the gray 

 marks of the t. p. line clearly contrast, could not suggest to me lanceolaria. 

 However, the mystery about this species may be now on its way to 

 solution. The name is in any event valid, if applied to a black form of 

 lanceolaria. 



In the present paper, I refrain from any discussion on the generic 

 titles as to which I am at variance with Smith and Dyar. 



Assuredly, types must look typical, and certainly some of the British 

 Museum so-called types of Walker and Guenee do not look so, for which 

 there is the best of reasons. They have partly been sorted over and made 

 into types, or they have been mistakenly labeled, or the labels were mere 

 determinations of the species not having the force of types. The speci- 

 mens of Acronycta may include all these categories. As the Guenee labels 

 are not final until Oberthiir's collection is examined, what I conclude is, 

 that the changes, back and forwards, proposed by Prof. Smith, are tentative 

 merely. It is wrong to consider them authoritative or conclusive, for the 

 determinations in Smith and Dyar's "Revision of Acronycta'" are put 

 forward in a positive manner, and now they are equally positively 

 contradicted by Prof. Smith. It would have been well, as it turns out, if 

 my original determinations had been let alone. As it seems, I understood 

 the species of N. Am. Apatela, generally speaking, sufficiently well. The 

 new, mostly Western species, could have been properly added and the 

 "Revision" bided its time. 



