THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. di po 
former is fixed, immutable, and to it every possible case of generic or 
specific svnonymy can be referred, and at once and for ever decided. 
The latter is relative, changeable, differing in various countries and among 
Entomologists of the same country. That which is convenient to 
European | .cpidopterists is the reverse to American. A collector has a 
different standard of convenience from a naturalist. To reconcile all 
these different opinions is impossible ; there is no rule which would be 
acknowledged by all. 
Take as an example one of our common Hesperidæ, Pamphila sabulon, 
described by Boisd. & Lec. in 1833, and found in all the E European ¢ collec- 
tions under that name. In £862 the same species was described in Har- 
miss ins. Mass: , as Hesperi ta hobomok, and it is so named in most American 
collections. By the law of ont the matter would be at once deter- 
mined in favour of sadu/on. But which is the most convenient ?—zabu/on 
evidently to European Entomologists, and Aobomok to American. 
Heye 1s a case in which the convenience of the two parties will always 
be opposed, and what rule have we to decide which is nght? none, unless 
we accept priority as our guide. 
Priority can be applied equally well to genera, but whether it would 
be advisable to change our families in accordance with it is, perhaps, 
doubtful, as the family name is not used in designating the insect and is 
therefore not of so much importance. 
By accepting these laws as proposed by Mr. Scudder, we are under no 
obligation to follow him in his excessively fine generic divisions. It is 
the array of new names which gives his paper, at first sight, such a for- 
midable appearance. I would be the last one to separate such clesely 
allied species as massasoit and sabulon, mystic and sassacus, polyxenes and 
trowus, and many others which are placed in new genera. , 
But the questions which can be raised in regard to the expediency of 
using large or small genera, and others of like nature, will, in time, settle 
themselves. if we can establish our nomenclature on a firm foundation 
which will never be disturbed by subsequent investigation. ‘his we 
think Mr. Scudder has done, and we hope that his work will be appre- 
ciated by American Lepidopterists. 
