248 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



use in England are very pretty, such as the "Arches" and " Wains- 

 cots " ; others are peculiar and less attractive, as the " Pugs " and 

 "Lackies." English names for our moths will, it is to be hoped, 

 gradually appear in our literature and come into general use. The 

 vernacular names proposed in economic works, such as the reports of 

 State entomologists, are often very ugly, and have nothing to recom- 

 mend tbem. They are simple translations from the Latin in many 

 cases, and are then quite often ridiculous. Dubiosa is translated 

 doubtful; fraterna, fraternal, and so on ; it is clear that the Latin 

 names are much better than these. But see what lovely names they 

 have in England for their moths : the " Kentish Glory," the " Peach- 

 Blossom," the " Buff Arches," the " Common Wainscot." About the 

 vernacular names for our moths must come the cooling touch of time ; 

 they can not be struck out in the heat which accompanies the coining 

 of a Latin name for a new species. Around their cradle some tutelary 

 divinity must hover ; some old tale, like an ancient crone, must be its 

 nurse ; out of some melody, dedicate to fields and flowers, must the 

 words be taken which are to serve as the title for the new-comer. Af- 

 fection for the object, quite distinct from the passion of the scientist, 

 must have its part in the English name, which should also be apposite 

 and express the appearance or habit of the moth. One of the names 

 proposed for a North American species, Ommatostola Lintneri, appears 

 to fill these conditions viz., the "Dune Wainscot." It is a reed- 

 colored moth, found on the sandy ridges (dunes) near the Long Island 

 beaches. Again, another species, vividly colored, black, pink, and yel- 

 low, is called the " Spanish moth," as it bears the Spanish colors. Its 

 scientific name is Euthisanotia timais. It breeds in Florida, and 

 comes up our Atlantic coast-line in summer, being often beaten into 

 the lighthouses with the birds, during wind-storms, or simply attracted 

 by their light. 



Our species of moths east of the Mississippi are pretty well 

 known, and all but the very small ones, the Tineidm or leaf -miners, are 

 described in different publications. What a change during the twen- 

 ty-five years which have just passed, and which span my own career 

 as a catcher of moths ! When, a boy of fifteen, I tried to find out the 

 names of some of our moths, I had great difficulty in ascertaining that 

 there was such a science as entomology at all ! At that time, even 

 in Agassiz's museum, at Cambridge, there were not fifty kinds labeled 

 which had been described and named in this country. Now we have 

 about seven thousand names of known species in our catalogues, and 

 from one to two hundred are being added to the list every year. Our 

 new discoveries come chiefly from the West, where wonderfully 

 beautiful species are " turned up." Arizona and New Mexico, as well as 

 Colorado, seem to be perfect paradises for rare and lovely moths. 



The reader will have seen that there are two kinds of names, the 

 scientific and the common. Nothing, it seems to me, that will promote 



