SPHINX SANIPTRI. 



(PLATE XIII, FIG. 18 <f>. 



Male. Expands 3 inches. 



Ui>per .surface in colour and ornamentation same as the European S. Pinasfri, L., with this exception — 

 that the latter has two broad transverse brown bands on primaries, the outermost of which is entirely wanting 

 in the present insect, and the innermost is (piite narrow and darker in colour than in Pinastri. 



Under surfiice uniform brownish-grey, flint traces of a mesial band on secondaries. In Fiiiastri are the 

 marginal part of primaries a little paler and more ashen than the rest of wing; in this species there is uo 

 perceptible change in the colouration. 



Fknial?:. Expan<ls 3| inches. 



Head and body same as male. 



Upper surface, |)rimaries same colour as male, destitute of all markings save a faint apical line and the 

 obscure streaks in cells between the median nervules near the median nervure. 



Under surface uniform dull greyish-brown. 



Described from one d and one ? exam])lc. The former was captured in Canada and was received by me 

 from Mr. Reakirt; the female I took sitting on a fence near some pine woods a mile from Reading, Pa. I 

 have never seen any others. Both examples are in good condition, though the female is a little w^orn ; they 

 seem to me to be an intermediate form between Sequoice aod Pinastri, though very close to the latter. 



.Sdiiie yi-ars aso in the month of October, crawling on tl\e ground among the dead pine leaves in this same piece of woods, I 

 fiinnil two larva? which lielonged to some insect of this irroup, perhaps to this species. M_v notes sav : "Not quite three inches long, 

 ratlicr slender, head yellow striped with red ; liodv redilish, surrounded with many transverse fine black lines; a brown .stripe on b.aek 

 from head lo anal horn, this stripe lined with white on both sides ; on sides alternate bands or lines of green and yellow, green pre- 

 dominating from head to last segment isave one) ; caudal horn dark reddish-brown; first few spiracles white, the others ringed with 

 red and black; from base of anal horn to end of anal segment, a reddish brown ilorsal line." 



rnfortunately, with all my care, these larv.-e, though they entered the ground, failed to jiroduce perfect insects ; nor did I ever 

 after see but one other, which was mutilated by .some bird, but 1 have little doubt but that they were the larva> of the species I have fig- 

 ured. 



If this species be a form of Pinastri, I know not, as I have never seen an example of the latter ilesiitnte of the broad brown trans- 

 verse shades of primaries ; but should this be the case, it is an easy matter to re-anagramize the name back to its original spelling, 

 und alles ist wieder gut. 



OX THE GENERIC PHANTASIES OF S. H. SCUDDER. 



We fear Mr. Scudder's terrene existence is in considerable Jeoi)ardy, for has it not been said "whom the gods wish to destrov 

 they first make mad," and to recapitulate all the entomological vagaries that gentleman has indidged in would take volumes; at the 

 magnitude of such a synopsis oven Ilubncr's ghost would stand duinlbimded. 



The llesperiihe have been separated by him into myriads of genera, and the genera into coHntles.s species. Nisoniades Juvenalis 

 lias been forced lo evolve JS. Viri/iliits, Jloratius, Enniiis, OriV/i'u.*, Tibiillus, Plnulua, Propcrtiu!!. Fvnfratis, Tcrentius* — these separated 

 from the old species and each other only by a twist or two in the shape, or the millionth of an inch diliircnce in the size of the organs 

 of generation 1 Krom the genus Pamphila he has educed, on what grounds it would be n wise man indeed who could tell, genera with- 

 out end ; Prencs, Limochores, Ochlodes, Anlhoviaster, Polilei' and lledone are a few of the many that at the moment occur to me. 



In an evil hour, by some mischance, he came into pos.session of the old obsolete Hnbueriau tract, beginning "Tentamen determi 

 nationis," etc., jirinled (without date) sometime about ISOt) ; he must needs get a reprint of the precious document for distribution at 

 ten cents, or thereabouts, per copy, and, lo I broadcast, like seed of thistles, or like dire pestilence, the thing spread, bringing forth no 

 goo<l fruits. .-Vs the leading sheep blindly jumps lumllong into a ditch, and the fiock as blindly follow, so (irote, ever re.idy, and 

 mad for any means that might bring his name into notice, enrolled himself under the Tentamen banner, and others of still lesser note, 

 stricken with Teiitamania Hocked around llie same standard. Tentamania spread with rapidity ; the pages of the Can. Ent. are filled 

 with its virus, the t'ainbridge organ anil the liull'. Hull. iCirote's organ i teemed with it. ,'^cudiler, on jiages i'io — 2ti0 of publication 

 just ciled, give.- his "■■iynonymic List of N. .\m. Xymphales ;" were it written in the language of the Zulus it could be no whit more 

 unintelligible to the mass of students than it is. He says: "The following list has been prepared to exhibit in the briefest possible 

 manner the classification, nomenclature, etc.," and that "it is" (heaven forfendl "the Prodromus of a more extended catalogue in which 

 the writer hopes to include a fuller synonymy * * * * and which, through the co-operation of his colleague, Mr. \. R. Grote, will em- 

 brace all the Lejiidoptera of North .Vuurica." 



He goes on to say that "the aim has been to eliminate everything unessential to the points in view," to which he might have 

 added, which was to try t<i cram down our throats head and slioulders the most monstrously absurd and incongruous compilalion that 

 ever em. mated from the diseased brain of man since the advent of .\dain. Here is the way you are to distinguish his genus Satyrodea: 

 "Hind wings entire;" now you know all about it the moment you see this insect (there is but (me of the genusi ; you know what it is, 

 iiotwilhstanding that a thousand olhei-s have the "hind wings entire;" there is a mysterious afiinity between you and the insect 

 that t»lls you it belongs to Scudder's genus Satyrodes. You turn to the list and finii "Sitti/rodes Euiydice, Linn.-Johanss., Amoen. .\cad., 

 6, 406 (Papi7ioi; Scudd., Rev. .\mer. Butt., ti i Argus);" s-hades of the mighty I what an exhumation of old dead bones; the insect 

 meant, by referring to the synonymy, in exceedingly small italics, is the common Paran/e Canlhus, Linn.. \ Boisduvatli, Harr.), by which 

 name it has been known and cited for a hundred years, and now at this late date we are called upon to change it, at Mr. Scudder's 

 behest. "Neominois" is erected by Scudder for an insect (Sa/yniS iJirfmpsiitl allied to Satyrus Bcroe, Fir., 5. Hippolyle, Esp., Semele, 

 Linn., etc. As a synonym of Ccrcyonig Whetleri, Edwards, he cites our Salyrus Hoffmani, entirely ignoring the figures of the male of that 



*Paper on .\ssymetry, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H., 1870, Vol. XIII, pp. 277, 288. 

 tFigured on Plate IV of this work. 



118 



