130 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Voi. xv 



A CORRECTION OF SOME RECENT SYNONYMY 

 IN THE GENUS THECLA. 



By Harry Cook, 



Albany, N. Y. 



Dr. Henry Skinner, of Philadelphia, has lately (Ent. News, Feb., 

 1907, p. 47), appeared in print with an article noticeable for the 

 strangeness not to say weirdness of the theories advanced. Dr. 

 Skinner, it seems, lately secured some seventy-three specimens of 

 edwarsi and calanus and, being unable to divide them to his own 

 satisfaction, jumped to the conclusion that they were one and the 

 same species. This conclusion would have been entirely harmless had 

 it not been published. But a printed article bearing such a well- 

 known name as that of Dr. Skinner may lead some astray and so it 

 seems well to call attention to a few facts. In the first place Dr. 

 Skinner divided his specimens on a basis of color, which is no basis at 

 all, unless one has perfectly fresh specimens, as these frail butterflies, 

 weather quickly. Of course, this basis gave no results. It could not 

 be expected to. He then considered the extra mesial band on the 

 underside of the primaries which is one of the distinguishing char- 

 acters, but found "absolutely no differential characters in it." His. 

 investigations at this point could hardly have been very thorough for 

 by this band, and its continuation on the secondaries, the two species, 

 are with a little practice, readily separated. I have taken as many as 

 one hundred in a day of these little Theclas and never found any that 

 could not be easily determined. 



It would be well for Dr. Skinner to consider also the larval, pupal 

 and egg stages of these insects before he makes a final determination 

 of the affair. The larvae he will find quite distinct and, in this locality 

 at least, they feed on wholly different trees. Edwardsi eats oak while 

 calanus prefers hickory and butternut. 



In a footnote on page 45 of the same issue of the News, Dr. 

 Skinner states as his opinion that Incisalia inis and /. heiirici are one 

 and the same. Another extraordinary discovery ! The Doctor this time 

 does not enlighten us as to how he came to his conclusions. Probably 

 he did so through a superficial examination of the imagines. I should 

 like to call his attention to the original descriptions of these two but- 

 terflies, not to the pictures. If one has a series of the two species. 



