30 



period, and rendered them exceedingly scarce thereafter. Tityriis in 

 its more southern limits feeds largely on one or more species of wild 

 bean, which is commonly found in marshes and along small streams, 

 and which is very sensitive to dry weather. It is very evident that if 

 constandy compelled to subsist on an insufficient diet both in quantity 

 and quality (lacking moisture), Tityrus would soon develop, in the 

 brood so subjected, a strong tendency toward the Zestos form ; and as 

 this is exactly what any brood of larvse attempting to feed during the 

 dry season in the tropics must be subjected to, it seems entirely natural 

 to find that form not uncommon there. 



Therefore, until further light is thrown upon the subject, I shall cata- 

 logue the species as at the beginning of this paper. 



I have dwelt upon this subject much more fully than I should have 

 done had I not considered it a typical case of the unfortunate work that 

 has been done on the Hesperidce. In this case, as in scores of others, 

 characters that are found, on examination of a large series of speci- 

 mens, to be inconstant, and which, however constant they might have 

 been, were unworthy of specific distinction, have been employed in a 

 manner that can only prove unfortunate for the authors using them, 

 and for the science so abused. 



Mr. Worthington's mistake in supposing his Oberon to be a new 

 species was quite natural, and a mistake that any one who described 

 with limited material from only one locality would be likely to make, 

 especially as he probably had not access to Hiibner's Sammlung. But 

 what reason Mr. W. F. Kirby can give for placing these forms, so 

 nearly devoid of constant colorational characters, in different genera 

 of his catalogue, using Thymele for Tityrus, and Telegomis for Zestos, 

 when their structural, or generic characteristics are identical throughout, 

 is beyond our powers of conjecture. 



Their being so placed, however, accomplishes good, inasmuch as it 

 calls attention to the utter worthlessness of these genera as at present 

 separated by cataloguers. 



NOTES UPON COLIAS CHRISTINA Edw., and 

 C. ASTR^A Edw. 



By W. H . Edwards. 



, C. Christina was described, Proc. Ent. Soc. Phil., 1863, from 4 $ 

 I 9 received from Mrs. Christina Ross, and taken at the Portage of 

 Slave River, about Lat. 60°. So far as I know, these examples were 

 the only representatives of the species in collections until 1883. The 

 male was yellow, with a large deep orange patch on the disk of each 

 wing; the borders broad, black, and like those of Eurytheme; the under 

 surface of fore wings yellow, of hind wings covered uniformly with 



