71 



C. AMPELOS Edw. 



This species was originally described from a $ and 9 from 

 Oregon, but the specimen labelled 'type' in the W. H. Edwards Col- 

 lection is from Vancouver Is. and the name has been pretty generally 

 applied to specimens from this locality. There is nothing in the de- 

 scription that would contradict such an association, but we would 

 point out that this Vancouver Is. specimen must not be held to be the 

 type, the whereabouts of which is unknown to us. We should not be 

 surprised if ampelos proved to be a form of ochracea Edw. in which 

 the ocelli of the underside had become regularly obsolete ; occasional 

 specimens, particularly in series before us from Plumas Co., Calif., 

 and Ft. Klamath, Oregon, show traces of ocelli on both fore and hind 

 wings. 



C. INORNATA Edw. 



We cannot agree with authors who sink this species as a synonym 

 of laidion Bork. on the strength of a paper by Dr. Bucknell in Ent. 

 Rec. Vol. IX, 1897. Laidion which is figured by Borkhausen and de- 

 scribed from specimens taken at Gladenbach, in the vicinity of Frank- 

 furt on the Main, in Germany, is recognized by all prominent contin- 

 ental lepidopterists as being merely an aberration of typhon with the 

 normal number of six well defined and white ringed ocelli on second- 

 aries reduced to one or two. Dr. Bucknell, who applies the name 

 laidion to a Scotch form with reduced ocelli, which is in any case not 

 the true laidion but the race scotica Staud., has himself been forced 

 to admit that our N. American form shows points of distinction as 

 compared with this Scotch race. Dr. Bucknell has been followed by 

 most English entomologists, including Tutt and Rowland-Brown, in 

 calling the Scotch form laidion and in a recent paper on the species 

 (Oberthur, Etud. de Lep. Comp. Fasc. VII, 1913, p. 85) the latter 

 author quotes Tutt, and agrees with him in censoring Staudinger for 

 creating the name scotica for the Scotch form which is excellently 

 figured on PI. 195 by M. Oberthur. Both these gentlemen have over- 

 looked the vast disparity in the type localities for laidion and scotica 

 which amply confirms Staudinger's judgment; it is very questionable 

 whether an aberrational name may be properly used for a racial form 

 from another locality. In our opinion inornata, while doubtless re- 

 lated to tiphon and its forms, is distinct enough in any case to war- 

 rant the retention of the name. It is typical in the region about Lake 

 Winnipeg and is well figured by Skinner in his revision (PI. VII, Figs. 



