Vol. XXVm, pp. 141-144 June 29, 1915 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



GENERAL NOTES. 



EUREODON AS THE GENERIC NAME OF THE WARTHOGS. 



Phacochoerus or some of its numerous variants has long been used as 

 the generic name of the African warthogs, dating from G. Cuvier's Rfegne 

 animal, volume 1, page 236, 1817, probably appearing late in the previous 

 year. An examination of the original reference convinces me that Cuvier 

 never used the word Phacochoerus as a proper generic expression. In 

 his account of the pigs, the warthogs are well described and considered a 

 genus apart from the true pigs. As was so frequently the case with 

 French authors the genus is designated by the French term Les Phaco- 

 Choeres (Fred. Cuv. ). A foot note occurs written thus: Phaco choerus ; 

 cochon portant une verrue. At no place in the text does the single word 

 Phacochoerus exist either standing by itself or in combination with a 

 specific name. The foot note is clearly only an explanation of the French 

 term Phaco-choeres which is not given on G. Cuvier's authority but is 

 quoted by him as the designation of warthogs used by his brother, 

 F. Cuvier. In the second edition of the R^gne animal, 1829, page 244, 

 the status of the name is the same although the two parts of the explan- 

 atory foot note are connected by a hyphen. 



The first use of Phacochoerus as a proper generic term is apparently by 

 Fisher von Waldheim in the Memoirs de la Society Imperiale des Natu- 

 ralistes de Moscou, volume 5, page 417, 1817. It is here used as a 

 Latinization of F. Cuvier's French term Phacochoere. Unfortunately it 

 is given as a synonym of Fischer's designation of the warthogs, Eureodon, 

 occurring first on page .373 and later with description and synonymy on 

 page 417. 



Eureodon and Phacochoerus as valid generic terms for the warthogs 

 were published simultaneously and Eureodon having been given preference 

 by Fischer, the first reviser, as well as originator of the terms, according 

 to Article 28 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature 

 should be accepted as the generic designation of the warthogs. 



— M. W. Lyon, Jr. 



28— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXVIII, 1915. (141) 



