' t t 



VOL. XXII. LONDON, SEPTEMBER, 1890. No. 9. 



A SUGGESTION AS TO THE GENERIC NOMENCLATURE 



• OF INSECTS. 



BV T. D. A. COCKERELL. LONDON, ENGLAND. 



Mr. Scudder's recent admirable work on the butterflies of New Eng- 

 land has, naturally enough, given rise to fresh discussion of the question 

 of generic nomenclature, without, however, leading to any very decisive 

 result. Mr. Scudder's views on the sub-division of hitherto-accepted 

 generic units are certainly extreme, and probably few will be found to 

 follow him entirely. On the other hand, many no doubt feel that Mr. 

 W. H. Edwards's genera require some sort of sub-division, and would 

 compromise matters by admitting some, and rejecting others, of Mr. 

 Scudder's divisions. Mr. Edwards himself, in his 1884 catalogue, has 

 numbered sub-divisions of many larger genera ; thus of Lyceena we get 

 groups I. to VII. But these numbers are not adopted by others, partly 

 because different authors treat the subject differently, thus creating con- 

 fusion, and partly because it is not easy or convenient to use a number 

 instead of a name. 



So we come to this conclusion : It is necessary that the larger genera 

 should be sub-divided, but it is highly unadvisable to call all those sub- 

 divisions genera. We therefore need a system of section or group-names 

 which shall be uniform, used generally, — not, like the numbers, variable 

 according to the fancy of the author, — and yet not of the nature of genera 

 or sub-genera. 



In the treatment of Carex by the botanists I think we see a similar 

 problem solved. Carex is a huge genus, which even after a reasonable 

 amount of subgeneric division, needs further grouping to be made in- 

 telligible. So, Fries, Drejer, Tuckerman and others have proposed 

 section-names : Plexites, Patiicece, Sigitata;, etc. These names are 

 always in the plural, and have nothing to do with sub-genera or genera 

 properly speaking, nor does any trouble arise about priority, provided the 

 name has not been used before in the same genus. The groups may not 



