v 



PREFACE. 



The following rules have been prepared for the purpose of aiding 

 entomologists in deciding questions of nomenclature arising in their 

 work. In preparing them the various codes of nomenclature have 

 been freely consulted and used, articles on nomenclature in various 

 journals read, and pamphlets on the subject have furnished some 

 points. After a mass of matter was prepared, copies were sent to 

 many of the principal systematic entomologists of America, in fact 

 all whom we knew to be interested in such matters. Nearly all have 

 expressed opinions on the more important rules, and many on almost 

 every one. Various other workers have been consulted personally 

 and the published utterances and catalogs of several entomologists 

 have furnished opinions. After being worked over and over again 

 the rules have gradually taken shape, often far from their original 

 form. They have been subjected to some use in catalog making, 

 type fixation, &c, and so far as possible they are brought into accord 

 with the general practice of entomologists. The result, while hardly 

 satisfactory to any one entomologist, expresses the opinion of sys- 

 tematic workers far more accurately than the vote of any committee. 



These rules do not represent the personal desires of their prepara- 

 tors, since there are several important rules which have been accepted 

 reluctantly by one or both of the compilers in order to join the ma- 

 jority of American systematic entomologists. As they stand there 

 will probably be at least one objector to every rule, but we hope no 

 one will object to all of them. The point of the use of a misidenti- 

 fication as a genotype, and that on a name in synonymy preoccupy- 

 ing the use of such name in the genus, provoked the mosl discussion, 

 but the weight of opinion and of practice seems to sanction the rules 

 as herein set forth. A few object to a valid specific name being re- 

 quired as the basis of a genus, but by far the greater number express 

 themselves as in favor of the rule. 



Rarely will two people express the same thought in the same lan- 

 guage, and likewise two persons reading the same statement may 

 disagree as to its meaning. An effort had been made to express the 

 following rules in language as plain and definite as possible, and 

 wherever it was thought helpful, examples are inserted. If the rules 

 are carefullv considered, in conjunction with the examples, where 



