THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 235 



I held back my paper for several years in the hope of being able to breed 

 the two forms, Lecontei and Confusa, side by side, but the appearance of 

 such a muddle as the description of Reversa Stretch decided me to publish 

 the results of my studies, so far as they had gone, with as little delay as 

 possible. 



Dr. Packard wrote that he could not beHeve in the distinctness of these 

 species, and that Mr. Otto Seifert had bred a good many forms and con- 

 sidered them varieties oi Lecontei. I immediately wrote to Mr. Seifert to 

 ask for particulars of this most important information, and received an 

 answer in which he said : — " Dr. Packard must have misunderstood me 

 in saying I reared those Callimorphas. Showing the doctor quite a 

 number of this insect in great variety I told him they had been caught 

 (by Mr. Putnam Cramer) near Troy, N. Y., in July, all at the same spot." 

 Finally, Dr. Lintner wrote very guardedly that C. contigua at least seemed 

 distinct. 



It would thus seem that these unfortunate moths, having got the repu- 

 tation of all belonging to one species, it is impossible to get people to 

 accept the idea that they may really be distinct species, although they are 

 quite ready to accept as such any apparently new form of such difficult 

 genera as Colias, Argynnis or Catocala, even when the difference is so 

 slight as to be hardly perceptible. 



I consider the Callimorphas far more distinct and more easily separated 

 than the species of very many genera of butterflies and moths which could 

 be named in addition to those referred to above. I have seen in all at 

 least two hundred specimens, and until very recently and since the publi- 

 cation of my paper, I had never seeji one that I could not unhesitatingly 

 place at sight. The exception was in the case of a few specimens in the 

 collection of Dr. Bethune, which seemed to indicate a possible linking of 

 the two forms, Confusa and Suffusa, and I am prepared to admit that 

 possibly these two forms may turn out to be northern and southern 

 varieties of one species, though Mr. Smith disagrees with me strongly on 

 this point. 



I hold, however, very strongly with Mr. W. H. Edwards that whenever 

 a form is distinctly and easily separable from previously named species, it 

 is entitled to be treated as a good species, and to be given a specific 

 name until it is proved to be only a variety by breeding, and that in such 

 a case the name should be retained as a varietal name ; but with regard 

 to this breeding from the egg, I would point out that the making of these 



