April 1S95.] 



PSYCHE. 



•229 



perfected series of Elis does not 

 appeiir to bring the species cis a 

 whole nearer to Meadii^ but has 

 rather a contrary effect. While it 

 renders increasingly plain the fact 

 that the neutral ground between 

 Meadii and Elis is but narrow, 

 measured for instance by the relative 

 luilikeness of anv two closely approxi- 

 mate males in the two species, yet it 

 makes more appreciable than before 

 the systematic alienation, anti the con- 

 sequent diversity of averages, dis- 

 tinguishing the two closely allied 

 kinds. Species so closelv related as 

 these cannot be satisfactorily estimated 

 from scrutiny of a few isolated 

 examples. In critical cases, before 

 a doubtful specimen can aid in a 

 final determination of the limits and 

 position of tlie species, the dubious 



example must itself be identified by 

 comparison with the species. If two 

 males of Elis, one highly t\pical 

 and one extremely divergent in the 

 conservative direction, are brought 

 into contrast with the adjacent species 

 J/t'«<///, the very obvious hiatus 

 between the two Elis (resulting from 

 absence of perhaps a dozen usual 

 intergrades) may impress an observer 

 as a far more momentous separation 

 than the nari'ow interval parting the 

 off-type individual of Elis from the 

 species Alcadii. But when the miss- 

 ing intergrades are procured, and the 

 vacuum (which Nature abhors) is 

 filled, the resemblance of the untypi- 

 cal example to Aleadii at once takes 

 secondary place, and its affinity for 

 the species Elis becomes the promi- 

 nent fact. 



WESTERN PEDICIAE, BITTACOMORPHAE AND TRICHOCERAE. 



BV C. R. OSTEN SACKEN, HEIDELBERG, GERMANY. 



The perusal of J. M. Aldrich's paper 

 in Psyche, February 1S95, aroused my 

 recollections of twenty years ago, and 

 made me examine old manuscript notes 

 of mine. What I found in them ma}' 

 be of some use in connection with the 

 three above-named genera. 



Pedicia ohtiisa. Since I described 

 this species in 1S77, I have received 

 from Mr. James Behrens of .San Fran- 

 cisco a pair of it, taken in Siskiyou 

 Co., Cal., on Sept. 27 and Oct. 6. 

 Both specimens agree with the one 



described by me in not having the 

 brown pattern of the wings prolonged 

 towards the posterior margin. The 

 female has the usual double stripe in 

 the middle of the thorax of a saturate 

 yellow, longitudinally bisected by a 

 brown line, which is the prolongation 

 of the narrow median black line of the 

 pronotum (or collar), and reaches 

 backwards tlie tip of the scutellum. 

 The male is a somewhat immature 

 specimen, paler yellow in coloring; 

 the thoracic brown line is perceptible 



