THE CANADIAN ETNTOMOLOGIST. 47 



418. D. crassiuscula, Haw. — A %^ in fair condition, taken flying 

 in daytime near the Red Deer River, 50 miles north-east of Gleichen, on 

 July 5lh, 1904, is without much d(jubt thio species. A -^ ^ taken at the 

 same time and place, is probably the same. I certainly have no females 

 from nearer to Calgary, but cannot be quite so positive about males. 



419 D. distincta^ Neum. — Very common. Middle May and June. 

 Good sj)ecimens of both sexes from the above-mentioned Red Deer River 

 locality, dated July 6ih and 8ih, 1904, do not seem separable from the 

 Calgary form. A day-flier, rarely coming to light, and still more rarely to 

 treacle. Both sexes are fiiJ^ured from Calgary specimens in Can. Ent., 

 XXXII, pi. 5, Aug., 1900, but, unfortunately, the figures are not very 

 clear. So far as my own local material is concerned, I am strongly in- 

 clined to let the three names given above stand for these species. I 

 formerly had q '^'"'<^ 9 of erechtea standing respectively as erichto 

 icrassiuscula) and erechtea^ but becoming suspicious from the fact that I 

 only look males of one and females of the other, submitted a series of both 

 sexes to Prof Smith, which resulted in my placing all my material from 

 south and west of Calgary under erechtea. The receipt, at different times, 

 of various specimens labelled crassiuscuhi and erechtea from eastern corre- 

 spondents puzzled me considerably to know how the two were to be 

 distinguished, the more so since, as I now find, the labels were about as 

 often wrong as right. I had never seen Mr. Slingerland's paper on 

 D raster ia in Insect Life, V, 87 and 88, 1892, of which Dr. Bethune has 

 kindly sent me an extract. The author of that article, it appears, after 

 critically examining a large number of specimens from various localities, 

 became convinced that erechtea and crassiusciila were distinct species, about 

 equally common, and that oehrea and distincta were varieties of the latter. 

 He found an exceptionally striking difference in the $ genitalia, and 

 another in the form of $ abdomen. In $ erechtea the ventral portion of 

 the seventh abdominal segment is as long as broad, with caudal margin 

 broadly rounded. In 9 crassiuscula it is broader than long, with caudal 

 margin broadly emarginate. In colour and maculation he differentiates 

 them thus . Erechtea — fore wings above dark or light drab gray (in many- 

 females brown or olivaceous) shade, with the two large dark bands always 

 separate, distinct and well defined towards inner margin in (^ ; in 9 > 

 markings always much less distinct, the subapical dentate spots never as 

 distinct as in the (^ , or as in the $ of crassiuscula. The males are very 



constant. Crassiuscula — fore wings above either distinct violaceous, 

 brown, or red shade, with the two large dark bands very variable, often 



