Nomenclature of the Chalddidce and Cynipidcs, 9 



different opinion, (Introduction, Vol. I. p. 196, note,) but De Jean, in his 

 Preface to the first volume of his " Species general des Coleopteres," 

 expresses a strong opinion on the propriety of retaining the oldest specific 

 name, to the exclusion of recent improved ones, giving for examples 

 Loricera pilicornis and Leistus spinibarbis, above noticed. It would not, 

 however, be proper to pass over in silence, or without censure, the con- 

 tradictory opinion previously expressed by that author in the same Pre- 

 face, where he announces his intention of adopting the names most 

 generally used, immaterial whether they have or have not priority of 

 date !, adding, that the investigation of the prior claim to a name is a 

 waste of labour, and ever attended with more trouble than can be com- 

 pensated by the benefit to be derived therefrom. How unworthy is this 

 remark of the work in which it is contained ! There is one case, however, 

 in which the earliest specific name of a particular insect must be rejected 

 in favor of the subsequently employed name, viz. where such earliest 

 trivial name has previously been used by some preceding author, for a 

 different species, in the same genus. 



No. 2. 



We now proceed to the history of the nomenclature of the Chal- 

 cididse and Cynipidse. 



The genus Cynips was proposed by Linnaeus in the 6th edition of the 

 Systema Naturae, and was evidently intended, (although comprising in- 

 sects belonging to other and very different modern genera and even fami- 

 lies,) for the reception of the true Gall Flies, those insects being placed 

 by him at the head of the genus. Most of the minute insects of the 

 parasitic family Chalcididae were, from the similarity in their habits, 

 placed by him amongst his " Ichneumones minuti," as they were also by 

 DeGeer. Geoffroy shortly afterwards, in 1764, established the genus 

 Diplolepis composed entirely of the true Gall FHes or Cynips of Linnaeus, 

 while the genus Cynips, which he also retained, comprised many of the 

 Ichneumones minuti of Linnaeus, having one of them, belonging to the 

 family Chalcididae, for its type, and also comprising several other species 

 belonging to the latter family which Linnaeus had incorrectly placed at 

 ihe end of the Gall Fly genus, Cynips. 



