THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 143 



One good specimen of a coin is sufficient for description, but insects 

 are not stamped from dies like coins, and all species vary more or less, 

 and if an author has before him a fair representation of the range of 

 variation of the species, his description can be made to much better cover 

 the species than if drawn up from a single specimen. Of course, it is of 

 the greatest importance that all danger of having more than one species in 

 the series selected be avoided, but even should such an error be made, 

 the plan which I have adopted would work automatically to establish the 

 species intended. My plan is to number all the types. The best, and 

 what I believe to be the most typical (^ , I name type No. i, and the best 

 and most typical $ type No. 2. The others are numbered consecutively, 

 as far as possible, according to their closeness to type No. i. Should, 

 unfortunately, another species be discovered among the types, it must be 

 given a new name, type No. i being the final standard for the species. 

 Should type No. i be unfortunately destroyed, type No. 2 would then 

 become the final standard. 



When a species is very distinct and not very closely allied to any 

 other species, types of any kind are of minor importance, as, for instance, 

 in the case of such a species as Vanessa Anfiopa, the preservation of the 

 type would be of no consequence beyond the interest necessarily attaching 

 to a specimen described by the great Linnaeus. 



When the type of a species has been lost or destroyed, a topo-type 

 might be of great importance in re-establishing the species. 



In the Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1862, Mr. W. H. Edwards 

 described a species under the name oi Lycana Pertibina. The types were 

 brought from the shores of Lake Winnipeg by R. W. Kennicott. Unfor- 

 tunately, the types were afterwards lost, and Mr. Edwards could not 

 afterwards certainly identify anything as the same. Strecker thought he 

 had identified it with the species later described by Grote under the name 

 Glaiicopsyche Couperi, but he afterwards admitted his error, and in his 

 catalogue designated it as unknown to him. Scudder thought, after a 

 " prolonged study " of all the N. A. Blues, that it was the same as LyccEua 

 Lycea, Edw., of which L. Arapahoe, Reak., is accounted a synonym, but 

 that also proved erroneous. In such a case as that, topo-types would be 

 exceedingly valuable, and should render it possible to clear up the mystery 

 surrounding the name. 



