200 J. A. LINTNER. 



evident that we arc not authorized to predicate of a butterfly, indicated 

 a century ago in another country, by a few generic characters applica- 

 ble (with a trifling exception) " to any Grapta then or now known," 

 and unrepresented by even so much as an outline figure — that because 

 it may not resemble a certain Vanessa, therefore it must be one of the 

 two allied Graptae with which we are at the time acquainted ; or, as in 

 another instance, to be referred to hereafter, that because we deem the 

 evidence sufficient to show that another indefinite description does not 

 refer to one of two interrogation-marked Grapta?, therefore the other 

 must be the one intended. A specific determination made six months 

 ago upon such a basis, would be already invalidated by the detectioQ 

 of Mr. Scudder's Grameri, and its validity for the future, would ne- 

 cessitate a favorable argument in its behalf, just so often as upon the 

 wings of a new species, a silver query should obtrude itself. 



III. The error of restricting the glaucous i^hade and the hlaclc 

 points to umhi'osa, thereby determining interrogafionis, will be shown 

 when discussing the former species. 



That our interrngationis cannot be the C-aitreum of Fabricius and 

 Cramer, would seem to be evident from the following considerations : 



It has not, as its characteristic feature of so great distinctive value 

 as to suggest its specific name, a golden mark. Godart's interroga- 

 tionis is '■^argenteo-notatis." Boisduvaland Leconte's C-aureum has "une 

 tache argentee." Edwards critically written description of i^a6/-(CiV gives 

 it " an interrupted C silver spot." Of the numerous specimens reared 

 by me from the larvaD, in which the hues are of their maximum bril- 

 liancy, none could with propriety be designated as golden marked — 

 all are silver — although, when especially sought for, a slight yellowish 

 tinge like that of german-silver can sometimes be detected. 



The golden character required in C-anrexan is a C ; that presented 

 \)j interrogationis is not a C, but an interrogation point : hence it 

 follows from Mr. Edwards' argument that it cannot be the latter spe- 

 cies, for he states that Boisduval and Leconte having described among 

 the varieties of their C-aiireum, those having " a silver spot sometimes 

 in form of a C ***** * these authors seem to me to have 

 included Grapta comma Harris, then undoscribed, as a third species, 

 that species being distinguished by an uninterrupted C, a character 

 unknown to vie in the others ;" — i. e. if the mark indicated be a C, the 

 species can neither be interrogationis or umbrosa. And yet we find 

 no intimation in this paper, that comma may have been the veritable 

 C-aureum of Fabricius, although we are shown how it combines the 

 characters of interrogationis and umbrosa, in that its " largest speci- 



