Vol. XXvii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 393 



On the Types of Certain Noctuid Genera occurring 



in North America (Lcpid.). 

 By J. McDuNNOUGH, PH.D., Decatur, Illinois. 



In the course of the preparation of a list of North American 

 Lepidoptera the problem has presented itself to us as to 

 whether the genera of the Noctuidae as used by Sir George 

 Hampson, in the Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenac of 

 the British Museum, can be accepted according to the current 

 codes on nomenclature. Sir George Hampson has in every 

 instance, irrespective of the work of any previous entomolo- 

 gist, fixed the type of each genus, when not particularly speci- 

 fied by the author, as the first species placed under the generic 

 name ; this procedure has resulted in numerous alterations in 

 our usual conception of the Noctuid genera and in many in- 

 stances of most confusing interchanges of generic names. 

 While personally we are rather in favor of this "first species" 

 principle of type fixation we find both from personal conversa- 

 tion and from our correspondence that the majority of sys- 

 tematists are decidedly against such a procedure and are more 

 or less agreed that the type of a genus should be fixed accord- 

 ing to rules such as are laid down in Banks & Caudell's Ento- 

 mological Code, Washington, 1912. Believing that the true 

 interests of science will be better served if we abandon our 

 own personal leanings and follow the ruling of the majority 

 we have endeavored in the following paper to give the results 

 of our search for the types of a number of Noctuid genera 

 according to the rules of the above-mentioned Code, and it 

 will doubtless be noted with pleasure by non-systematic ento- 

 mologists that by this method the old conception of many 

 genera has again been restored. 



We have decided to disregard Hiibner's Tent amen names 

 and credit them mostly to Ochsenheimer (1816) ; even if later 

 it be decided that the Tcntamen is valid and the genera there- 

 fore be attributed to Hiibner very little change in the generic 

 conception will be necessary as in most instances the genotype 

 proves to be the species mentioned by Hiibner in the aforesaid 

 work. 



