1865.] 197 



mal Idle and Fitcli's Irene., and many other varieties besides. Indeed 

 Mr. Edwards, to whom I have forwarded most of the above varieties, 

 expressly asserts that " Ire)ie Fitch is simply lole with a trifling varia- 

 tion." (Morris Sj/nnp. p. 351.) Just in the same way Dr. Harris 

 made five species out of the very variable Orthopterous Tutrix ornata 

 Say, and Dr. Fitch has made three species of the Homopterous genus 

 Athi/mnna — mriahUia^fenestratuS and minor — out of a single wonder- 

 fully variable one, which I have found in profusion on the same birch 

 tree in the three forms quoted as species by Dr. Fitch, together with 

 all the intermediate varieties, and enough others, not noticed by Dr. 

 Fitch, to make a dozen species as good as his. 



Taking all the facts into consideration, I do not think that we are 

 entitled to assume that the black larva found on the Hickory is what I 

 have called a Phytophagic Species — i. e. that it has ceased to intercross 

 commonly in the imago state with the normal form found on other trees 

 — but only that it is a Phytophagic Variety. In the course of an in- 

 definitely long time, it may perhaps cease to intercross with the normal 

 form ; and then by the Laws of Inheritance the distinctive characters, 

 which are now connected by intermediate grades, will cease to be so 

 connected, and the Hickory form will become to all intents and pur- 

 poses a- true (Phytophagic) species. We find a good exemplification 

 of this stage in the process in the following species. 



Halesidota* tessellaris Sm. Abb. (=Antiphola Walsh) and 

 H. Harrisii Walsh (=te8SELLARIS Harris non Sui. Abb.) 



(Lepidoptera.) 

 I have this year carefully compared several dozen larvas of the above 

 two (Phytophagic) species, and find that the mature and nearly mature 



* As to the orthography of this genus, Mr. Grote has the following remarks : — 

 "Mr. Walker, in transcribing the generic name Erinnyis from Hiibner, has 

 altered it io Erinnys— J or tchat ixason I knoxo not. As is the case vf\i\x Ilalindota 

 &ndAmp!yptertc3, which read Halesidota and Amblypterus in the Cat. B. M., I 

 presume it is the result of a simple error of transcription." (Proc. &c. V. p. 79.) 

 Clearly, in all these three cases, it is no casual error of transcription, but a rec- 

 tification of Iliibner's bad Greek. Authors of course are at perfect liberty to 

 coin gibberish generic names; and so far as my own private tastes are con- 

 cerned, I infinitely prefer a good, sonorous, gibberish name, such as Bembus, 

 Clamhus, Agahus, Datana, Nadata, &c., to the general run of would-be Greek ones. 

 But when a generic name is manifestly intended to be Greek — and more espe- 

 cially when a Greek derivation is printed along with it, so as to prevent us, 

 which we should otherwise often do, from considering it as gibberish — most 

 writers conceive that they are at liberty to spell it correctly, and reduce it to 



