56 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



belonging to different sub-groups. Brucei as a species was pronounced 

 by Dr. Siaudinger originally to be a form ci Bore. Turning to the plate, 

 it appears that the claspers of Noma and what is called " Semidea, Colo- 

 rado form," (and which is yEiio, Bdv.) are sufficiently alike to be one 

 species, though widely separated by the facies, and Semidea of the White 

 Mts. is farther from ^710 than from Noma, though the first tv/o are of 

 one sub-group. .The truth is that claspers, or the whole body of abdom- 

 inal appendages, are unreliable for determining what are species. Mr. 

 Scudder unwittingly gave the coup de grace to that fad, when he said, p. 

 329, Butt., N. K, of Grapta Iiiterrogatiotiis, that " the two forms of this 

 species, Fabricii and Umbrosa, differ so greatly and so consta7itly from 

 each other, not only in the colouring, but in the form of the wings, and 

 even in the abdominal appendages., that they have been considered as dis- 

 tinct species." That is, if they had not by breeding from the egg been 

 proved to be one species, they would be considered as two ! But in Mr. 

 Scudder's plates, which are a marvel of drawing, and are of undoubted 

 accuracy, several species of Argynnis have one style of organs ; so several 

 Graptas ; several Phyciodes, several Theclas, several Limenitis, several 

 Colias, etc. ; differing between themselves in each case not more than the 

 individuals of any one species would doubtless differ. We read even in 

 this Revision under view that in Noma and \\\ Jutta there is an unusual 

 amount of individual variation in the claspers. Of course there is such 

 variation everywhere. In every part of the organization of every species 

 there is individual variation. I have before gone into this subject pretty 

 fully, in the Can. Ent., XXIIL, p. 55, and need not say more here. 

 Though I may as well add that by Mr. Scudder's plates the allied groups 

 do not always show the same style of organs, thus : Grapta Progne can- 

 not be distinguished from Grapta Comma, though they belong to different 

 sub-groups, while Grapta Faunus differs conspicuously from Comma, 

 though these two belong to one and the same sub-group. Twenty years 

 ago, before the larvae of these species had been reared, Dr. Staudinger 

 and others, judging by the facies, insisted that Fannies and Comtna and 

 Grapta Satyrus were nothing but one species. See Butt. N. A., Vol. I., 

 Note to G. Comma text. And this, by the way, is a good illustration of 

 the unreliability of facies alone for determining species which are closely 

 allied. In my opinion, after reading what has been published by Mr. 

 Scudder on the genitalia, and carefully going over his beautiful plates, I 

 deny that claspers and all the organs together are valuable for the pur- 



