AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 201 



mens are equal in size to the smallest of these ; the form is sometimes 

 that of one, sometimes of the other; the color of the upper side is be- 

 tween the two; the spots precisely the same; on the under side, the 

 same words would describe the males of comma and i)ili'no(jationis 

 \junhr(m{\ varying only the shade of color ; the lines, basal space, 

 spots, dots, patches, stripes and metallic marginal spots are all the 

 same except in color." (Edw.) 



The C-aureum of Fabricius must be smaller than his interrogation is, 

 for of the latter he writes " affinis P. C-aureo et paullo major." Our 

 interroijattoniA is not only larger than umbrosa^ but it is the largest 

 known Grapta, for its expanse is, "■ S , 2.5 to 2.7 ; 9 > 2.6 to 3 inches" 

 (Edw.): while timhrosa averages S , 2.25; 9, 2.50 inches. In 

 order, therefore, that Mr. Edwards' determination of these species may 

 be correct, it is required that we accept the larger one as the smaller 

 of the two. 



To regard comma as the C-aureum, Fab., would meet two of the 

 preceding objections which effectually preclude i}tterro(j(ilionis, but so 

 long as from the insufficient data furnished us, we may not positively 

 say what the species really is, it does not seem worth our labor to de- 

 termine what it may possibly be.* Would it hot bo better wholly to 

 reject it from our synonymy, than to give it place therein, with the 

 unsatisfactory appendage of a query poiut. 



If Mr. ICdwards has erred in determining our iaterrogati'mia to be 

 the C-aureum of Fab., theu it follows that it may still be entitled to 

 bear the name by which it has been so long known. 



Notwithstanding our inability to decide positively as to Fabricius in- 

 tending by his inter rojationis our uorthern red-wing species, inasmuch 

 as it has been generally known to entomologists by that name — has 

 been repeatedly figured as such — as the description of Fabricius is ap- 

 plicable to it — and as the name belongs to one of the Grai)tiO, there 

 would seem to be great propriety in our regarding it as intcrroi/ationis, 

 Fab. To do so, will prevent the confusion which would attend the 

 transfer of the name to another species — an annoyance to which it 



® I am incorrectly quoted ou page 2 of the paper under consideration, where 

 it is given as )ny deteriainatiou that " both Cramer's and Abbofs figm-es repre- 

 sent the male of the species which has a red upper surface and much falcated 

 wiiigs," and again on page 4, that in my opinion " the latter [C-aureum, Fab.] 

 was intended [by Fabricius] to represent the male of the other species [interro- 

 gationis]." My having inadvertently written m^erro^a^io'u's instead of C-auretiiii, 

 on page 314, line 37, in Trans. Am, Ent. 8oc. vol. ii, was doubtless the founda- 

 tion of these inferences. I had not at the time, have not now, nor expect to 

 have hereafter, any opinion as to what P'abricius' C-aureum represents. 



