626 TAXONOMY. 



to be theirs, although they have been published as derived from the 

 Greek and Latin. Fortunately, entomology is less encumbered with 

 these monstrosities than other portions of zoology, for instance, orni- 

 thology, and yet we should have to sweep long before we cleansed away 

 all the rubbish. We must therefore be satisfied with stating some of 

 the laws by which such names should be formed. 



1. The words intended to compose the name must be of the same 

 language. There were many delinquencies against this natural law 

 even formerly, for instance, Monoculus, Insectology, &c. It would 

 require too many innovations to remove all such hybrid words ; but let 

 no new ones be thus formed, for it is opposed to the fundamental laws 

 of language. 



2. A Latin word cannot receive a Greek termination, nor can a 

 Greek word a Latin one, but entire Greek words may be transmuted 

 into Latin. Grammar teaches the modifications the word undergoes 

 in this case ; its explanation would here lead us too far. Cicindeleice is 

 erroneous, for Cicindela is Latin, and eta is doubtlessly from the 

 Greek termination ITTJS ; it should therefore be Cicindelina. 



3. New words may be formed either out of two substantives or a 

 verb and substantive, or an adjective and substantive, or a preposition 

 and a substantive. 



In every case the rule is that the chief idea stands behind, appended 

 to the root of the first word, and generally with an inserted vowel. In 

 Greek words this vowel is o, and in Latin words i. If the second sub- 

 stantive in Greek commence with a vowel, the o is contracted, or cut off, 

 in Latin the i is omitted. But this rule does not obtain in every case ; 

 exceptions are sometimes admitted, which analogies determine., for 

 example, Glossotheca is derived from -yAwo-tra and #77(07 ; the root, after 

 rejecting the termination, of the genitive, is yAaxro-, therefore yXaxraodrjKrj 

 in Greek. Fissipes comes from fissus and pes ; Jlss is the root, thence 

 Jissipef;. Linnseus's word Myrmeleon is wrong, as it comes from /wp/^? 

 and \ea> v , it should therefore be called Myrmecoleon, for p.vppr)g is the 

 root, and not /wp/u?. Latreille incorrectly writes Melasoma, whereas 

 it should be Melanosomata, for pe'Aas has in the genitive /ueAaw?, and 

 therefore /*e \av is the root, not ^eAa. 



In prepositions the connecting vowel remains away if they terminate 

 in a vowel, for instance, Metathorax from pera and 6wpa. Even this 

 vowel is rejected if the following word commences with a vowel. 



If the second word in composition be a verb there is appended to 



