To whom should a species be credited: to the author who names it a variety and declares positively that it is not distinct from another, which he considers the stem, or to the author who first points out the specific characters and establishes its distinctness?

In 1875 Dr. A. Speyer, in his paper on “Europäisch-amerikanische Verwandschaften,” gives first, a list of American species which he cousiders distinct from European forms, a list of species occurring in both countries, a list of questionable forms, and then elaborates these lists by a series of notes. In the list of species common to both countries, he enumerates Hydroecia nictitans, and afterwards points out somer minor differences in the series before him, noting that Guenée had previously errumerated most of them. On page 152 of the volume he speaks as follows: “Als eigene Art wird sich die amerikanische Nictitans von der europaischen nicht trennen lassen, da ein völlig durchgreifender Unterschied zwischen beiden fehlt. Eine ausgezeichnete Varietat bildet sie aber jedenfalls.”