154 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [xxxii, '21 



a somewhat "popular" book on our butterflies, recently published, the 

 author says, in describing G. interrogations : 



"But Fabricius evidently never stopped to 'count two' when he saw 

 this, as he should have done had he been versed in the proper way of 

 regarding pauses, but at once named the species interrogationis, to the 

 utter confusion of beginners in butterfly study, who try in vain to make 

 the interrogation-mark out of the very plain semicolon." 



The Greek interrogation mark is the same as our semicolon. A ref- 

 ence to this may be found in Harris' Insects Injurious to Vegetation, 

 edited by Charles L. Flint, Boston, Crosby and Nichols, 1863, page 299, 

 where a footnote reads as follows: ("This butterfly receives its name 

 from the Greek note of interrogation, which is identical with our semi- 

 colon. Ed.") 



It is perhaps too much to hope that all entomologists be Greek schol- 

 ars, but they would surely be better equipped, and probably happier 

 men, if they were. WM. C. WOOD, New York City. 



A Supplementary Note to the Biography of W. H. Patton. 



EDITOR, ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS In the interesting biography of Wil- 

 liam Hampton Patton, by W. E. Britton and L. O. Howard, which 

 appeared in the February, 1921, number of the ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 

 (Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 33-40), the authors fail to mention one historically 

 noteworthy contribution made by him which, although outside the strict 

 limits of entomology, is, nevertheless, of a certain entomological inter- 

 est, not only because it was made by Patton, but also because of its rela- 

 tion to the subject of insect transmission of disease. In 1895 (Amer. 

 Naturalist, Vol. 29, May, p. 498) he proposed the generic name Piro- 

 plasma for the Texas fever parasite to replace the name Pyrosoma Smith 

 and Kilborne, 1893 [not Pyrosoma Percn, 1804; mollusc]. Wandolleck 

 also in 1895 (Centralbl. f. Bakteriol., 1. Abt., v. 17, 4 Mai, pp. 554-556) rec- 

 ognized that Pyrosoma Smith and Kilborne was ?. homonyrn and renam- 

 ed it Apiosoma. This name, however, irrespective ot tlie r elative dates 

 of publication of Patton's and Wandolleck's papers (both appeared in 

 May, 1895) is not available, as it is preoccupied by Apiosoma Blanchard, 

 1885. The standing of Patton's name Piroplasma is affected by the 

 name Babesia Starcovici, 1893, but there is some question as to whether 

 the Texas fever parasite should be considered congeneric with Babesia 

 botis (Babes, 1888) Starcovici, 1893, the type of Babesia, especially since 

 there is considerable uncertainty as to the nature of the organism de- 

 scribed by Babes, who originally named it Haematococcus bozns. Ac- 

 cordingly, if the two forms be considered generically distinct, the cor- 

 rect name of the Texas fever parasite is Piroplasma biyeminuin (Smith 

 and Kilborne, 1893) W. H. Patton, 1895, and it is by this name that it 

 is most generally known. B. H. RANSOM, Chief, Zoological Division, 

 Bureau of Animal Industry, U. S. Dept. Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



