198 J. A. LINTNER. 



says, its uuder surface is " wood gray, undulated and variegated with 

 brown," — a description altogether too vague to enable us to determine 

 the species which he had in view. 



]Jui.sduval and Leconte's C-aureum^ throws no light upon the sub- 

 ject, but only additioual obscurity. Their text calls for falcated wings, 

 which their plate docs not present : their synonymy embraces too 

 much, and the specific characters which they give, appear to be 

 borrowed from the three species with which we are now acquainted, 

 and of which they speak as " varieties." 



There is reason for much of this confusion, for in the C-aureum of 

 Fab., we are burdened with a name, without the ability of knowing, 

 after all our study, to what particular insect it properly belongs. The 

 meagre descriptions in Syst. Ent. (1775), Spec. Ins. (1781) and Ent. 

 Syst. (1793), which are the three that we have, are verbatim tran- 

 scripts of the Linnsean description in Syst. Nat. (1760), with the ex- 

 ception of the substitution of " dentato-caudatis" for " angulatis." Of 

 this latter text Mr. Edwards says, " the above indefinite description 

 applies to either of our large species, or indeed, excepting the silver 

 mark, to any Grapta then or now known." It follows therefore, that 

 the Fabrician descriptions are, by Mr. Edwards, placed in the same 

 category of inexplicable obscurity. 



Although we are able to assert on the authority of Mr. Edwards, 

 that the Fabrician descriptions of C-aureum are inadequate to indicate 

 it, yet he claims (in lit.) that the author " has accurately described 

 hoth of our species" (uhterrofjationis and nnihroaa'^), and maintains 

 this view in the remarks and in the synonymy of the paper under con- 

 sideration. As such accurate description of inferror/afionis is not to 

 be found in the specific characters assigned to C-aurfiiim, it follows 

 that the evidence for the identity of the two which Mr. Edwards dis- 

 covers, is to be sought extraneously, in some reference or by implica- 

 tion. The following are the three reasons advanced in the paper, to 

 show their identity : 



First: Fabricius in 1793, refers his C-aureum to Cramer's figures, 

 which " purport to represent an American species" (Edw.). 



Second : Fabricius in describing his infer rogationis says of it, 

 nimis affinia P. C-aureum. "Now Fabricius could not have said that his 

 inter nxjationis was -extremely like' Ani/elica, Cramer (that is C-aur- 

 eum of Linnajus) therelbre he must have intended [Mr. Edwards in- 

 fers] to compare it with C-aureum of Cramer. 



«- These designations of the red-wing Grapta and of the black-wing, given in 

 my former paper, are continued throughout this. 



