OF WASHINGTON. 73 



or not. It seems, however, that the adoption was general, and 

 has for the greater part held since that date. Of course all sys- 

 tematists will readily see that, as the name mellifera goes back 

 to 17^8? no older name can possible replace it, and that Linnaeus' 

 name must remain as the authority for this specific name, 

 although as a matter of fact a dozen or more writers ( Aldrovandi, 

 Moufet, Swammerdam, Reaumur, etc.), had used the name 

 mellifera before 17^8. 



In the first and second editions of the work by myself, - pub 

 lished by the U. S. Department of Agriculture*, I used the 

 specific name mellijica. The third edition of the publication 

 cited appeared in 1899. Meanwhile Dalla Torre's " Catalogus" 

 had been published, so that, upon looking up the references 

 given by him, I adopted the name mellifera. This was, so far 

 as I am aware, the first publication of the specific name mellifera 

 in a practical manual of apiculture. Prof. A. J. Cook, when 

 about to revise his " Guide to Bee Keeping," made an inquiry of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture as to the reasons for the 

 change in the specific name of the common honey-bee in the 

 publications of the Department. This matter was referred to 

 me and the reasons were given him in full. Thereupon he 

 adopted, in the edition of his work which appeared in 1900, the 

 specific name mellifera. This, so far as I am aware, is the 

 only other work on apiculture which has adopted the name 

 mellifera. This information he made later the basis of an ex 

 tended article on the subject which was published in the 

 " American Bee Journal." f 



The Century Dictionary, Webster's International and the New 

 International, have not yet adopted the name mellifera, while 

 the Standard Dictionarv gives both mellifera and mellijica, 

 with a statement that the latter is still in most general use. 

 Systematic workers, however, specialists in this group of the 

 Hymenoptera both here and abroad, are quite generally adopting 

 the name mellifera in place of mellijica in their publications. 



Dr. Gill said he regretted that the rules of zoological nomen 

 clature preclude the retention of mellijica as the name of the 

 honey-bee, for he agreed with Mr. Benton that it is a better 

 name than mellifera, and he thought Linnreus showed sound 

 judgment in substituting it for the latter. 



*Bull. No. i, N. S., Div. of Ent., U. S. Dept Agric., "The Honey- 

 Bee : A Manual of Instruction in Apiculture," ist ed., 1895; 2d ed., 1896. 

 fVol. 51, No. 24, June 13, 1901, p. 372. 



