PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



VOL. 23 MAY 1921 No. 5 



ON THE FAMILY NAME FOR THE PLANT LICE. 



BY A. C. BAKER. 



The origin 1 of the word Aphis and the correct spelling of the 

 family name based upon it have given rise to no little discussion 

 among students of this group of insects. On the face of it the 

 word appears to be Greek but it is found nowhere in the classical 

 Greek writers. For bug Aristotle used K&PIS and for lice he 

 employed <}>0dp but nowhere in his works, so far as I can find, 

 does he refer to forms which might be considered aphids. One 

 would naturally expect to find them under the discussion of lice 

 for the Latin writers of the revival period treated them under 

 Pediculus as the lice found on plants or in some cases those 

 generated by plants. ' From Aristotle's word for louse we can 

 have only Phthirius and other similar generic terms and from 

 its Latin equivalent such generic names as Pediculus. 



All modern students, seemingly, have believed that the word 

 Aphis originated with Linnaeus and our dictionaries (Murray's, 

 Century, etc.) give this view and list Aphis as modern Latin. 

 If this view is adopted we have a d'-stem and the family name 

 should be written Aphid-idae for Linnaeus used aphides in the 

 plural. Aphididae is generally employed to-day as the spelling 

 for the family name of the plant lice. 



But it is not with the meaning "louse" but rather in the sense 

 of bug that we find the early use of the word. Aldrovandi 1 in 

 his huge work wrote as follows: 



Cimex uttpis, ut dixi, Graecis nominatur, nonnunquam etiam K6pvs. Sed a 

 Dioscoride /c6peis oi airi) K\ivrjs, hoc est Cimices lectularii dicuntur: In glos- 

 sario in pluruli Kopides utiam inuenio, & in Epigrammate Antiphanis (ciptes. 

 Recentiores Grseci Kopi^a. nominunt: reperio deniq; in veteri Lexico A"0is pro 



C'imice. 



This passage is of considerable interest for it indicates not 

 only our generic name Corixa and its Latin equivalent Cimex 

 but it indicates also the original use of the word Aphis. The 

 first thing proven is that the word is not modern Latin and that 

 it did not have its origin with Linna-us. This granted, the 

 derivation given in our dictionaries is, of course, incorrect. It 

 must be remembered that Buckton was on the consulting staff 



U'lyssis Aldrovandi -De Animaliluis Insectis 1602, Lib. Quintus, 535. 



