OF WASHINGTON. VOLUME XVIII, 1916 21 



In the nomenclature adopted in this work no attention has 

 been given to priority, although the intention has been to choose 

 those names which have, by long usage, become most familiar, and 

 to avoid, except where necessary or desirable, the proposal of new 

 names. 



In the naming of the hind wings the same system has been fol- 

 lowed as for the front wing, in so far as practicable with the ex- 

 ception that to the name of each vein and cell the diminutives 

 "ella" and "ellan" are added in order to distinguish the parts of 

 the forewing from those of the hindwing and avoid the necessity 

 of each time stating to which wing the reference is meant . 



The system of wing nomenclature proposed by Woodworth 

 (1906) contains some interesting features but these cannot be 

 considered to be of any special value to the taxonomists nor do 

 they enable one to understand the terminology used by previous 

 systematists. Woodworth's paper can only be useful to the 

 morphologist. 



Those who advocate the advantages of the Comstock-Needham 

 -ystem of terminology will no doubt regret that this system has 

 not been used as the basic terminology here. We believe that this 

 system possesses no appreciable advantages to the systematist 

 while it does have certain disadvantages; first, that in the groups 

 where the venation is much reduced the formula becomes long 

 and cumbersome as well as meaningless (as in the Chalcids) ; 

 second, the system is founded on insufficient investigation and fu- 

 ture studies will necessitate repeated changes to agree with the 

 facts. We believe it is much better for taxonomic work to des- 

 ignate a given area by a given name and call it that regardless of 

 its possible homologies or analogies. As a system of designating 

 veins and cells for the morphologist the Comstock-Needham 

 system possesses certain advantages, but as a terminology to be 

 used in taxonomic work we do not believe it is desirable. 



DEFINITION AND SYNONYMY. 



In cases where a vein is divided into sections by an intersecting 

 vein or veins these sections are called abscissae and in longitudinal 

 veins are numbered from the base of the vein. 



The number of abscissae of a given vein may vary in different 

 groups or even in the same group, their number being determined 

 by the number of points of intersection, e.g., in figure 1 cubitus 

 is divided into seven abscissae and in figure 2 into five. 



A. THE FOREWINGS WITH MANY VEINS. 



The nomenclature adopted for the forewing is, with a few modi- 

 fications and additions, that used by Oesson which has been 



