l895-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 35 



variety, and varieties should receive a Latin name. For instance, 

 Agrotis wils07ii occurs in a typical olive-gray variety, and in a 

 red variety (var. specialis). It does not matter that intermediary 

 examples exist. The terms must be employed in order to desig- 

 nate properly the variety. It is the property of varieties that 

 they intergrade, of species that they do not pass into one another. 

 So with Agrotis tessellata. Prof. Lintner once showed me a box 

 full of tessellata. A certain proportion were my variety atropur- 

 Purea. These could be at once picked out and the varietal name 

 is vindicated by the fact. The detection of varieties worthy of 

 the name, is a matter of the tact and experience of the lepidop- 

 terist. Cases of small and individual variation should not receive 

 a name. If one is given it should be relegated into the synonymy. 



An aberration is an occasional strong divergence, and to re- 

 ceive a name must at least be a remarkable one. The limit be- 

 tween aberration and variety is not clear. Some entomologists 

 only recognize as valid varieties such as they have themselves 

 named. The varieties of other authors they consider synonyms. 

 Staudinger's catalogue attempts a classification of variation. 



The whole subject of variation is now engaging the attention 

 of lepidopterists in England, and the works there being pub- 

 lished by Mr. J. W. Tutt should be attentively studied by Amer- 

 ican lepidopterists. The subject is one not finally or fully under- 

 stood, hence what you have to say will possess a great interest. 

 I may say, in conclusion, that only by breeding from the e^^ will 

 the true forms appear, and thus the matter may be decided 

 whether a debatable form is a species or a variety. 



Mr. Dyar says: I understood by a variety an example of a 

 species differing from the normal form. In the special sense it is 

 a group of individuals like each other, but of less than specified 

 rank. The variety may (a) intergrade with the normal form, or 

 (b) it may not. In the latter case it is either an aberration, di- 

 morphic form, or a local race. An aberration is a variety that 

 occurs in a single instance or very rarely. I understood "form" 

 to be a general term covering ' ' variety, ' ' but not necessarily less 

 than specified rank. I would always name a dimorphic form or 

 a local race. The practice of naming intergrading varieties can 

 so easily be carried to extremes that I do not like to advise it. 

 As to aberration when distinct and of quite different appearance 



