270 Colonel Charles Swinhoe on 
received S. harristi, S. binotata, S. regina, S. crowleyi, 
and S. hopei, all from the Khasia Hills, from the Rev. 
W. A. Hamilton, and makes some uncalled-for remarks 
about stay-at-home naturalists, because Mr. Moore has 
(very properly I and many others consider) given names 
to these extremely rare forms. 
It is the old senseless dispute as to what is a species 
and what is a variety. When any one describes a new 
insect he has to give it a name for the sake of convenience ; 
in writing this I quote Mr. de Nicéville’s own words in 
naming a varietal form of the female of Huripus hali- 
therses (see p. 20, vol. ii., Butt. of India). It is impos- 
sible to know whether the insect is a new species, or a 
new variety, or a new local form; the letters n. sp. are 
used for want of a better term. Let Mr. de Nicéville 
invent a new term, and no doubt it will be readily 
adopted. 
As the Rev. W. A. Hamilton had been collecting for 
me for the past two years, I wrote and asked why I had 
not received from him any of the forms referred to, and 
in reply he states :—‘‘ My collectors sent me about three 
hundred Hupleas. I sent them to Mr. de Nicéville to 
name them for me, and to keep what he wanted; he 
kept twenty or thirty, and returned the rest to me; they 
are all Huplewa binotata; the supply is unlimited.” 
I think if Mr. de Nicéville had written that out of 
three hundred S. binotata received by him from the Rev. 
W. A. Hamilton he got the seven or eight specimens 
exhibited when his paper was read at the Society’s 
meeting, representing the various extremely rare varietal 
forms described by Mr. Moore, it would have been fairer. 
Amongst the many thousands of butterflies received 
from the Rev. W. A. Hamilton, the only Stictoplea I 
have ever received is H. binotata, and all perfectly typical. 
E.. harriswi I have a series of, all from Burma; and it is 
undoubtedly a good localform. The other forms referred 
to must be extremely rare. Though I have collected for 
nearly twenty years, and have paid over £400 to col- 
lectors in India for Lepidoptera sent me during the past 
three years, I have never seen a single specimen of any 
of the forms referred to, except the type-specimens ; that 
they are probably varietal forms may be true—no one 
disputes it; that they are very properly named should 
also be beyond dispute. Without the names the present 
