THE CAXADIAX ENTOMOLOGIST. 179 



median shade on the primaries, would, if caught, say in Reading, have 

 hardly furnished one of JNIr. Strecker's " coveted " novelties. Again, 

 instances are on record where naturalists have first considered the 

 American species the same as the European, and then changed their 

 views and described them as distinct. An instance of this is offered by 

 Brephos infans, first described as the same as the European Brephos 

 parilienias. The amount of error is no greater in the one case than the 

 other. 



At the time that I commenced my labors, the difficulty of determining 

 our species of moths was very great, certainly much greater than it is 

 now. That this change is in part due to my work I think is true, equally 

 so that Mr. Strecker is both unjust and ungrateful to omit the consideration 

 from his mind. How much he himself is indebted to my labors may be 

 seen by comparing my work on the genus Catocala with his own on the 

 same subject. His figures and determinations are taken from the collec- 

 tion I studied and the paper I published ; and, in reality, his figures 

 merely supplement my original work. That Mr. Strecker has so generally 

 coincided with me in his specific discriminations in the genus Catocala, is, 

 I think, less a compliment to my correctness than a proof of Mr. Strecker's 

 ready acceptance of assistance. 



I have a few special remarks with which to conclude. I am blamed 



for retaining the name C. ponderosa instead of the earlier C. nebiilosa || 



for a species of Catocala. From Linnceus to Lederer it has been 



customary to avoid the repetition of names in the same family of moths, 



and Guene^ has changed the name of a species of Catocala on account 



of an Anarta bearing the same specific title. I have never changed the 



name of another author on this account ; my opinion (as, indeed, cited 



by Mr. Strecker) being that a fresh name is unnecessary. I have merely, 



where two names were attached to the same species, preferred the later 



when the earlier had been previously used. Whether my descriptions in 



the genus Catocala are the best, I will not dispute with Mr. Strecker ; in 



his comments on C ponderosa Mr. Strecker forgets that we figured the 



species, in justice to Mr. Wiest, the artist, I think very acceptably. Nor 



will I allow Mr. Strecker the proper authority to discuss the value of 



structural characters in the Lepidoptera, seeing that he has shown no 



experience in the matter, and is unable to discriminate even between the 



sexes of Catocala when the abdomen is wanting. 



A. R. Grote. 



