()\ SOME i\. AMERICAN SPHINGID.E IN A. G. HUTLEU'S UEN'ISlON. 143 



r«is()n wliv it slioiiUi iKit be; even if (lie insect in allietl to an Asiatic species, is it more wonderful to iirul a species of Chcerocampa 

 un llie Pacilic coast allied to an Asiatic one than to (ind ancli closely allied things as Smerinthus Ccpctis and 5. (leininnluH, the tirst in 

 Asia, the latter in the Atlantic United States, or Parnassiua Intermedium and P. Smintheus, which I helieve are identii'al, the former iti 

 the Altai Mts. and the latter in the Mts. of Colorado? 



Page ii-l'I, " Hyloicus saniptri. Spliiiix Saniptrl, Streckcr, Lep. Rhop. and Het. i, pi. xiii, lig. 18 (187(il." 



I am now convinced this is identical witii Sph. Pinastri. My iirincipal grounds, apart from its heing found in the United fStales, 

 which is of small moment, was the absence of the broad dark transverse shade of primaries, but I have since received examples from 

 Germany which are also destitute of this band or shade. 



.'Vttached to this monograph are live coloured plates representing various species, mostly new, of Sphingidse, arnl aNo a uuiidjcr 

 of larvse. 



I cannot say I aui enamoured with the tViglitfiil number of genera adopted, which is the one objectionable featin'e to this other- 

 wise excellent work, but it appears Mr. Butler has equal want of attection for the paucity of genera accepted by myself, for he alludes 

 pleasantly on p. (i'il to " Mr. Strecker's imcompreheusible allection for unmanageably extensive genera." 



Hut in truth it is greatly to be depliued that the plan (insanity olTspring of C4rote's vanity) of dividing and snlidividing .so 

 natural a genus as Smerinthus should be here adopted ; l)ut 1 have treated fully this subject on pp. 52, V.i, as well as elsewhere in this 

 vtdunie. What better proof of the compactness of a genus is reipiired than the knowledge that two of its most dissimilar-looking species 

 will copulate and produce hybrids as in the case of 5. PopiiU and S. OceUala. 



In speaking on p. 6l;5 oi DUadia Brontes, Dru., [Sphiirx Cubensis, (irote, is a synonym,) the author expresses himself in the fol- 

 lowing language which certainly will meet the sincere approval of all true lovers of science. Pie there says: " I cannot but regret that 

 Mr. Grote has thought it necessary to add to the synonymy by proposing names for species before they were required. It is true that he 

 might otherwise have been superseded ; but as a fact it does not matter who names a species, so long as the name given be euphoniotis, 

 whilst (in the other hand a cumbrous synonymy is a great evil." 



In the tan. Knt. I-X, ji. 130-133, Grote gave what he calls a " Notice of Mr. Butler's Revision of the Sphiugidse," though as 

 usual it is a dissertation on himself, in which the first seven lines are devoted to praising Mr. Butler, being prefatory to the remaining 

 seventy odd which are mainly devoted to the highly gratifying and instructive purpose of praising himself. 



November, 1877. 



