92 Allen- Certain Generic and Specific Names. 



It appears to me, however, that Uroleptes is not the proper 

 name to take the place of Tamandua Gray, 1825., where it 

 stands as a nomen nudwm, becoming only properly habilitated, 

 as shown by Dr. Palmer, by Lesson in 1842. In this case Uro 

 leptes has undoubted priority over Tamandua, but it appears 

 that F. Cuvier in 1829,* used the same name, slightly varied in 

 orthography, for the same group one year earlier than the pub 

 lication of Uroleptes. Cuvier recognized three genera of his 

 family "Les Myrmecophages," namely: (1) "Les Tamanoirs, 

 Myrmecophaga Linn., 1 ' (2) "Les Tamanduas, Tamanduas," and 

 (3) "Les Didactyles, Didactijles" Myrmecophaga included 

 only the Great Anteater, the genus being properly attributed to 

 Linnaeus. J)t.dactyle is the same as Cyclopes Gray, 1821, leav 

 ing the second genus, Tamandnas, for the other members of 

 family, namely the Tamanduas of naturalists. The name 

 Tanianduas is used in as strictly a technical sense as either of 

 the other names adopted by Cuvier for the other members of 

 the family Myrmecophagidae, and I see no reason why the 

 name Tamanduas is not tenable from Cuvier, 1829, for the 

 group of Anteaters included in Uroleptcs by Wagler one year 

 later. 



Respecting the name Didelphis, I am gratified to find that 

 Mr. Thomas supports my contention f for its tenability. A 

 word, however, respecting the earlier specific names applied to 

 various members of this group. As is well known Linnteus's. 

 J). marsupialis was a composite group based on references to 

 (1) the Virginia Opossum, (2) the Guiana Opossum, and (3) the 

 large Mexican Opossum, the latter being the Tlacuatzin of Her 

 nandez. It appears to me that the most satisfactory way of 

 dealing with this composite group is to follow the usual method, 

 whether the group be specific or generic, namely, the principle 

 of elimination. The name nwrxupialis must, of course, be re 

 tained for some member of the composite group. As the first 

 member to receive a special name was the Guiana Opossum, 

 named Didelphis karkinophaga by Zimmermann in 1783, this 

 name should be applied in a specific sense to the large Opos 

 sums of northeastern South America. The next member of the 

 original marsupialis group to receive a name was the Virginia 



*Dict. des Sci. Nat., LIX, p. 501, 1829. 



{Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, pp. 185-188, Oct., 1900. 



