249 



Plagodis kuetzingaria Pack. 



In the Ent. News XVIII, 206, 1907, Pearsall attempts to clear 

 up the muddle surrounding this name but we doubt if his conclusions 

 can be accepted. In the first place our good friend Mr. Swett informs 

 us that in all probability Packard's Monograph was published before 

 the appearance of Grote's note in the Can. Ent. VIII, p. 112, 1876 

 under the heading Eurymene kuetzingi Grote in which he states that 

 'a description and the type of this purple-black species have been sent 

 to Prof. Packard for publication in his expected monograph of the 

 Geometrae. It is named for Mr. Kuetzing of Montreal, who found 

 the species.' Packard's name would therefore have priority, with per- 

 haps the permissable change of keutzingaria to kuetzingaria in order to 

 conform with the correct spelling of the proper name. We would fur- 

 ther note that among Packard's type specimens (6 $ , 1 9 ) no men- 

 tion is made of any specimen from Montreal although possibly the 

 locality "New York (Grote)" may refer to this specimen. We hardly 

 think that Grote's mention of a 'purple black' species can be said to 

 limit the name kuetzingaria to the specimen figured by Packard on PI. 

 XIII, Fig. 51 ; in any case this specimen was looked upon by Packard 

 as an aberrant form of his species and could not hold the name under 

 existing rules of nomenclature. Hulst's action therefore in proposing 

 the name nigrescaria for the species (1887, Ent. Amer. II, 212) is per- 

 fectly valid ; this fact seems to have been overlooked by Pearsall who 

 makes no mention of Hulst's name. Under these circumstances 

 altruaria Pears, will become a synonym of kuetzingaria Pack, as figured 

 in the Monograph PI. XI, Fig. 44 ; we are in doubt as to what species 

 Pearsall's purpuraria refers but judging by the description alone it, too, 

 must be very close to kuetzingaria ; the description would fit in excel- 

 lently with Packard's figure ; a study of the type should settle this ques- 

 tion. 



The arrangement of the species would stand thus: 



nigrescaria Hist. 



kuetzingi Grt. (nom. nud.) 

 kuetzingaria Pack. 



altruaria Pears. 



? purpuraria Pears. 



and a corresponding change should be made in our new Check List. 



