274 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, 'l2 



exaggerated. It is, in my judgment, of fundamental importance as soon 

 as possible to have these disputed questions settled authoritatively for 

 all time, and the creation of the Commissions already alluded to, in my 

 opinion, is a step in advance, which has been taken none too soon. We 

 are providing in these Commissions a court of last appeal, and their 

 decisions should be accepted and adopted universally. No class of bio- 

 logical students is confronted with a huger and more entangled nomen- 

 clature than are students of entomology. As we all know, there are 

 more living forms belonging to the class Insecta than belong to all the 

 other classes in the animal kingdom combined. Thousands of new gen- 

 eric names have been created within the last decade for Insecta. The 

 nomenclature is increasing so rapidly and so large a number of students 

 are engaged in investigating the nomenclature of the past that it is no 

 wonder that men who have not access to large libraries and all the exist- 

 ing apparatus for determining disputed questions are at times somewhat 

 bewildered. I trust that a conscientious resolve will be formed by all 

 working entomologists to refer questions in doubt to the nomenclatorial 

 Commission of the Entomological Congress, that having been passed up- 

 on by this body their decisions may be submitted to the decision of the 

 Commission of the Zoological Congress, and that thus ultimately there 

 may emerge, as the result of their combined efforts, an entomological 

 nomenclature which will be accepted universally as final and therefore 

 stable. In this work the law of strict priority will have to dominate, 

 though as I have already intimated, there may be some possible excep- 

 tions in the application of this rule to be left for final adjudication upon 

 well-established principles by the members of this Commission. 



In this connection it may be said that it is eminently desirable that 

 there should be some concerted effort made to establish a recognized 

 series of rules or principles governing the matter of founding genera. 

 Our camps are divided into two groups, as we all know, the "Splitters" 

 and the "Lumpers." Both have their faults and their virtues. For my 

 part, I have the feeling, which has been growing, that the "Splitters" 

 have been entirely too active of late, and the results of their diacritical 

 investigations have had entirely too much respect accorded them.. The 

 establishment of a new genus upon the basis of a slight modification 

 in the neuration of a wing, the presence -or absence of a tubercle on 

 the epidermis of a larva at a given place, is something with which I 

 confess I have no sympathy. This is, however, aside from the main 

 question. 



Let us by all means have a stable nomenclature. In my judgment, 

 however, the only way to rightfully attain this end is by respecting 

 the law of strict priority save in a very small and limited number 

 of cases, which should be very carefully considered and acted upon. 

 W. J. HOLLAND. 



