250 



Sicya macularia Harris. (PL XXVII, Figs. 1-10). 



This species which extends through Canada and the Northern 

 States from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast, down the Rockies into 

 Colorado and through the Coast Range and Sierras into S. California, 

 has long excited our curiosity partly owing to its wide range of territory 

 and the number of apparent races it tends to form and partly because 

 a goodly number of names are placed in its synonymy, some of which 

 we have felt sure could well be used for racial forms. We have re- 

 cently given the matter considerable study and offer the following notes 

 on the subject. 



The type specimen of macularia was a 9 from the North Shore 

 of Lake Superior; Packard (Monograph Geom. p. 480) gives a de- 

 scription drawn up from this type and Harris figures the same in 

 Agassiz's Lake Superior PI. VII, Fig. 3, also mentioning in the text 

 that the species occurs in Massachusetts. Packard further (1. c. p. 

 481) describes the Eastern $ and gives a good figure of same (PI. 

 XI, Fig. 50), his figured specimen being evidently rather larger than 

 is usual in Eastern specimens. 



Guenee renamed macularia Harr. on the ground that the name had 

 been too frequently employed in the Geometers ; his new name, subli- 

 maria, (Hist. Nat. Insect. IX, 105) will be therefore an absolute 

 synonym; he further described (1. c. p. 104) truncataria from Canada 

 and solfataria from New York. M. Oberthur gives us an excellent 

 figure of the type of truncataria (fitudes de Lep. Comp. VI, PI. 154, 

 Fig. 1486) which leaves no doubt but that it falls to macularia Harr. 

 The type of solfataria should be in the British Museum but we have no 

 note on the subject; according to the description it differs from macu- 

 laria in having the whole outer area on both wings ruddy (rougeatre 

 clair) with uncheckered fringes; we have seen no specimens from the 

 Eastern States which would match this description and think the name 

 should be held, at least as an aberrational form. In Cat. Brit. Mus. 

 XX, pp. 120, 121, Walker described calipusaria from Orillia, Ont. and 

 agyllaria (listed by Hulst as argyllaria) from St. Martin's Falls, Albany 

 Riv. Hudson Bay ; calipusaria, the type of which we have examined, 

 falls to macularia; agyllaria type $ is somewhat larger, deeper yellow 

 in color, peppered with purplish, with more irregular t. a. and t. p. 

 lines and more extended terminal ruddy suffusion ; we will refer to 

 it in detail later. 



