OF WASHINGTON. 37 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



A PLEA FOR THE GENUS. 



By NATHAN BANKS. 



HISTORY. 



There has been, in recent years, a strong tendency, with 

 many entomologists, to divide old genera. This tendency has 

 been more exploited in some orders than in others, but in 

 nearly all groups of insects there are now many genera en 

 tirely strange to any but the specialist. Indeed, in the large 

 orders it is impossible for one devoting himself to an entire 

 order to become familiar with the ever-increasing flood of new 

 genera appearing in hundreds of periodicals and journals. 

 Almost overwhelming as it is to the specialist, is it strange 

 that the general entomologist, the economic entomologist, and 

 the collector of insects consider it an evil, second only to the 

 nomenclature craze? 



This multiplication of genera is due to a modification of the 

 concept of a genus. With the early writers on entomology 

 the genus was a very broad group, and of variable rank ac 

 cording to the author. Latreille, the father of modern ento 

 mology, in his first work, the " Precis," saw the necessity of 

 fixing genera more definitely, and did so by elucidating their 

 characters. In a few years, he, with others, assigned to genera 

 certain species as examples or types. 



There thus arose two views as to the basis of a genus. First, 

 that it was an assemblage of species exhibiting certain peculiar 

 characters, and second, that it was a certain type-species and 

 forms congeneric therewith. This idea of the genotype, as an 

 incarnation of the genus, has gathered many adherents who 

 consider that any peculiarity of the type-species may be made 

 the distinguishing character of the genus. With them a genus 

 is not fixed so long as it contains two species; it may yet be 

 divided. They care nothing for the characters of a genus, 

 but rest all on the genotype. Indeed, genera are frequently 

 formed on a species without the mention of any distinguishing 



