OF NOMENCLATURE. 



f>27 



the root, in Greek words, the terminations oy, e, and ov, which are 

 transformed in Latin into us, a, and um. Many verbs also in this 

 composition transmute a vowel of the root, for instance, typo does not 

 form typos, but <p6pos, thence Aspidiphorus. In Latin verbs us is 

 appended similarly, for example, Carnivorus, derived from caro, gen. 

 carnis, root, earn and vorare, root vor, thence vorus, the i is the in- 

 serted vowel, whence we have carnivorus. 



4. New generic names are formed chiefly from Greek words, partly 

 because Greek compounds are more harmonious, and partly because the 

 Greek is richer in words, and more flexible than the Latin. 



356. 



The laws are the same for the composition of the names of groups. 

 With respect to the form of the generic name itself, it can only be 

 altered when urgent circumstances demand it, for the name is sacred, 

 and no one dare touch it with impunity. Two circumstances only, 

 namely, false construction and previous application, warrant its altera- 

 tion. The sex of the generic name is optional, and may be left wholly 

 to the taste of the originator, but within certain groups, wherein a certain 

 sex has been introduced for the genera, it is as well to continue it for the 

 sake of uniformity. The genera Carabus, Anlhia, Calosoma, Bembi- 

 dium stand together in one family, notwithstanding their difference of 

 sex. But if a new genus be separated from an old one the sex must 

 be left unaltered, else it may too easily occasion confusion and misun- 

 derstanding in the specific names. 



Generic names consisting of two separate words, as we find them in 

 the older writers, Fabricius justly rejects, for example, Ray's Vespa 

 Ichneumon for Ichneumon, or Petiver's Musca apiformis for Bom- 

 lylius, &c. Whereas Fabricius goes too far when he wishes to reject 

 words composed of two Latin substantives, as Gryllotalpa, Lin. 

 Generic names that sound badly, or are too long (nomina sescjuipe- 

 dalia et enunliatu difficillima) must also be avoided, as well as such 

 as have objectionable double meanings *. 



If a new genus be separated from an old one, the best known and 

 commonest species must be left with the old name, and a new one must 

 be invented for the rarer ones : hence Linneeus's Scarabaeus stercorarius, 



* Fabricius, Philutopliia Entomologica, p. 11 j. 3'J. 



s s 2 



