March, ipii.] LenG : NOTES ON COCCINELLID/E. 7 



Coccinellidae," by Thos. L. Casey (Can. Ent., XL, 1908) and "Deter- 

 minate Evolution in the Color Pattern of the Lady Beetles," by R. 

 H. Johnson (Carnegie List., June 29, 1910). The former European 

 practice is shown in the " Bestimmungs-Tabellen der Europaischen 

 Coleoptera, II, Coccinellidae," 1879, by Julius Weise, in which every 

 difference in maculation known to its author seems to have received 

 at least a varietal name. • Under some species many varieties are 

 cited, and since 1879 their number has been increased. The tables 

 show no characters for their separation except maculation. This 

 practice does not seem to meet with general approval and various 

 articles showing the common parentage of the supposed varieties 

 have been printed. Weise himself in a letter deprecates too great 

 reliance on color characters and Casey says, " A large proportion of 

 them are really synonyms." 



Casey's paper is important on account of his voluntarily reducing 

 a number of his previously described species to the rank of subspe- 

 cies, in harmony with his criticism of the European method. Other- 

 wise its attitude appears to be not very different from that of his 

 former work on Coccinellidae published in 1899, in which he did not 

 hesitate to adopt "type of coloration as a primary taxonomic char- 

 acter" (Jour. N. Y. Ent. Soc, VII, p. 121).* 



To the student of Orthoptera or Lepidoptera this may appear a 

 safe course to pursue; but to one accustomed to the variable macu- 

 lation of the Coccinellid;e it cannot be acceptable without an exami- 

 nation of the foundation on which the theory was built and the 

 results which followed its use. The collection with which he worked 

 would be the natural foundation and, by several statements, seems to 

 have been too small to justify the generalization. E. g., in speaking 

 of Hippodamia glacialis he says (p. 79), "anterior spot always want- 

 ing," whereas in fact no very large series is needed to show that the 

 spot is frequently present. Again (p. 106), speaking of Axion 



* This theory in his own words is " Type of ornamentation has not been 

 regarded as a generic character hitherto, but is in reality one of the most 

 important, especially that of the pronotum " (Jour. N. Y. Ent. Soc, VII, p. 82). 

 Later in the same article the idea is presented a little more strongly, viz., 

 " Ornamentation may become in other words as important a generic structural 

 character as any other special modification " (p. 120), and on page 121, referring 

 to Hyperaspis : " In adopting type of coloration as a primary taxonomic char- 

 acter, however, this is restricted below to the patterns of the elytra" (p. 121). 



