Hagen.] 168 [December 27, 



this preference — it is directly obvious, that a large number of 

 species, formerly accepted by the same author, must be considered 

 as mere varieties or even less. At least it is precisely the reiter- 

 ated and careful study of these two papers that has induced me to 

 make the numerous reductions in the present paper. Neverthe- 

 less it is fair to state, that Mr. Edwards is of an entirely different 

 opinion. Only three months ago in a letter concerning my views 

 he stated : " My experience with Philodice leads me to believe 

 that there is not and never was any connection between Philodice 

 and Eriphyle [but Trans. Ent. Soc. Phil, v, p. 15, he has named 

 himself the some specimens Philodice, which he describes, p. 202 

 same volume as Eriphyle] i or Occidentalis or Chrysomelas 

 or other of the American species. If Philodice ever had a close 

 connection with any other, that one was Eurytheme to my 

 mind, but I don't assert it, for it can't be proved, and it is useless 

 to add one more to the heap of guesses." 



Apparently he has forgotten that he persistently separated 

 Eurytheme, Keewaydin and Ariadne as different species, till the 

 late Mr. Boll proved that all three belong to the same species. 

 Here certainly it was proved by breeding through two years, and 

 the suggestion that the same will happen for other species, there- 

 fore, cannot be considered to be a useless guess. Such spurious 

 species based upon one, or three or a few more specimens, even 

 without any reliable proof that the males and the females belong 

 together, must be rejected by science as long as their validity has 

 not been shown in an incontestable manner by equally careful 

 experiments as those for Eurytheme. Until that has been done, 

 one is perfectly justified to unite with Philodice, all species which 

 have been characterized only by differences falling in the wide 

 range of those given in Mr. W. H. Edwards' paper. 



In the text of C. Philodice, C. Palaeno (Cramer, Vol. i, pi. 14) 

 is quoted by Mr. Edwards as a synonyme, but this species is from 

 the Cape of Good Hope and, doubtless as well, the female in 

 Cr. Vol. iv, pi. 340, C. Electra L. About the identity of Philodice 

 with C. Anthyale Hb. there can be no doubt. I have never seen 

 so large specimens of C. Philodice as 2.6 inch (Edw.) and 2.66 

 (Peak.) ; the largest before me is 2.3 inches. I have before me a 

 male from New York with absolutely no trace of the extra discal 

 spots on the underside of the wings. 



