Mr. A. White's Remarks on Synonyms. 119 



isuffered to remain without examination. To the simple, satis- 

 factory, and easily-conducted experiments which supply that evi- 

 dence, I again respectfully solicit the attention of naturalists. 



XIX. — Remarks on the Synonyms of a Homopterous Insect de- 

 scribed in the last Number of the ^ Annals.* By Adam White, 

 Assistant Zool. Dep. Brit. Mus. 



In the last Number of the ' Annals' there are descriptions of some 

 Homopterous insects from the collection of the British Museum. 

 Since the memoir was published, I have seen, for the first time, the 

 text to Guerin's admirable ' Iconographie du Regne Animal ' (a 

 work which on the title-page bears the date of 1829-1838, although 

 I see on the wrapper it was not finished till 1844, through some 

 mistake of the printer [?]). I find an exceedingly great number of new 

 genera and species of insects not figured in his plates, and on look- 

 ing over it among the Homoptera saw a description of the Pcecilo- 

 ptera circulata, Guerin-Meneville, from the Malay coast, which is 

 certainly the insect I have long subsequently published as the Pa- 

 ciloptera Dianthus, so that this pretty species will now stand as 



Pceciloptera circulata, Guerin, texte Iconogr. du Regne An. p. 361. 

 P. Dianthus, White, Proc. Ent. Soc. 1843 (ined.). Annals and 

 Mag. of Nat. Hist. Jan. 1845, p. 36 (cum fig.). 



Hab. Malay coast (Guerin), Java (Wilson). 



To my description of Cercopis Charon (Z. c. p. 35), I should have 

 added " very near to, if not a variety of, Cercopis viridans, Guerin in 

 Belanger, Voy. t. 3. f. 7." 



In the text of M. Guerin's work, under the head of the genus 

 Aphcsna, he complains of the system of changing generic names, such 

 as the one established by him, because not exactly properly com- 

 pounded. The distinguished professor of zoology at Halle, on this 

 ground, has given the genus alluded to the name Aphana, and in his 

 ' Handbuch der Entomologie,' ii. (we confine ourselves to the por- 

 tion of his great work dedicated to Rhynchota), he has very fre- 

 quently for similar reasons changed the names. 



As a student of Hemiptera and Homoptera I for one raise my pen 

 against this innovation, the more especially as it seems to have been 

 a principle adopted by one of the best French entomologists, the able 

 and amiable Serville, in his work on the Hemiptera in the ' Suites 

 k BufFon ' ; an admirable book, so far as it goes, the joint production 

 of MM. Serville and Amyot. If names are to be altered because 

 improperly compounded, then let the dictum pass into a law, and 

 many of the genera of Linnaeus, Fabricius and Latreille, the fathers 

 of entomology, must be changed. A fit of radicalism seems to have 

 fallen upon most of the scientific describers of the present day : " If 

 a name has been twice employed," say some, " in botany or zoology, 

 the name last published must be changed;" others say, " No; if a 

 name be already employed both in botany and zoology, retain them 



