4 BULLETIN OF THE BROOKLYN ENT, SOC. 



The species, as a rule, are very variable. They are mimetic in 

 their coloration, and are in the main, we believe, conformed in color 

 to the bark of the tree, on the leaves of which the larvae feed, and on 

 which, naturally, the insect more generally rests. There is seem- 

 ingly nothing constant which appeals directly to the eye : the ground 

 color of the primaries, the dashes upon the wings, the sheen of the 

 wings, the transverse lines in their distinctness and dentations, the 

 width and shape of the bands of the secondaries, and the shading of 

 their colors, are inconstant. We make this general, for we believe 

 no species has been collected in large quantities but has furnished 

 many surprises in the range of its variation from any given form. 



No final determination of species and varieties can as yet be made 

 which will be received by all scientific men. We are all human ; 

 "blood is thicker than water" ; our species are our children ; and it 

 is hard to confess that even facts can destroy them. Justice can not 

 be done for many years to come, for the namers of most of our Cato- 

 calae live ; and though we love science, and desire as soon as possil >le 

 to see the end, yet, in view of the love we bear our living fathers in 

 Entomology, we freely pray for each, " Serus in caelum redeas." 

 Though, in some instances, for the comfort of those who are to take 

 our places, we devoutly wish that their "woi"ks could foUow them." 



Species and all divisions, higher or lower, are to an extent arti- 

 ficial ; but the aim ought to be to make them as little artificial as pos- 

 sible. Definite divisions do not always exist in nature, but divisions 

 do generally exist sufficient to make use of as limitations. The effort 

 should be in genera always, in species and variations as much as pos- 

 sible, to follow nature. It is the proper method; for science is nature 

 classified and catalogued, and distinctions indicated by names should 

 be given only when nature gives distinctions indicated by gaps. It 

 is the method of convenience ; generic distinctions are for little else 

 than convenience. The specific name is the only necessity as a rule, 

 and might be always so. Generic names ought to be used only so 

 as to mark easily evident groups of species, whether the number of 

 species be feAv or many — whether one or a thousand. 



In these things we can not all think alike. Nature predestines 

 our way of looking at these matters, and we must be natural, or we 

 become parrots and hypocrites. In science, as in religion, we ought 

 to believe in and practice charity toward those who differ from us. 

 Fanatics, bigots, and dogmatists are more common in science than in 

 religion (which is saying a great deal). In both cases the character- 

 istics prove that the person manifesting them is neither rightly sci- 

 entific nor trulv religious. 



