202 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



Regarding the specific names, Lycaon and Herse were named 

 by Fabricius, as Mr. Scudder informs me, from paintings, "un- 

 questionably representing our species, in the possession of a Mr. 

 Jones," and now at Oxford, Eng. No locality was given for them. 

 Did some rule prevail such as that which has been suggested by 

 Prof. Westwood — viz., that after an insect has been universally 

 designated, say for a quarter of a century, by a specific name, 

 that name should nevermore give way to any that might be resus- 

 citated — we should not now be called upon to change Boisduval's 

 familiar titles for these familiar butterflies. So long as no such 

 rule exists, the quickest way to get rid of the confusion now at- 

 taching to the specific nomenclature* is to follow Mr. Scudder, 

 who has given the subject so much attention. In the higher 

 animals, Audubon and Bachman did not hesitate to reject such 

 names as Anisonyx rufa Rafinesque, or Arctomys rufa Harlan — 

 names given to an animal which Lewis and Clark had described, 

 but which the namers had never seen ; and to adopt, instead, the 

 Aplodontia Leporitia Richardson, which, though it had not priority, 

 was first coupled with a truly recognizable description from the 

 animal itself. On similar grounds Mr. Scudder would have been 

 justified in rejecting the Fabrician names. As a matter of inter- 

 est to Lepidopterists, I produce these two descriptions (kindly 

 copied for me by Mr. Scudder) which have remained so long un- 

 noticed and unrecognized : 



[Fabricius, Entomologia Systematica, Tom. iii., pars i., p. 228.] 



Lycaon, 714. — P. S. Alis dentatis, anticis fuscis, flavo alboque macula- 

 tis, posticis ferrugineis, ocellis sexcaecis; subtus variegatis, ocellis octo. 



Papilio Lycaon. Jon. fig. pict. 4, tab. 17, fig. 1. 



Habitat , Mus. Dom. Drury. 



Corpus medium, fuscum abdominis lateribus fulvis. Ake anticse supra 

 fuscae; flavo alboque maculatae ocelloque caeco atro iride rufa; subtus basi 

 flavae, fusco maculatae, apice fuscae maculis tribus albis ocellisque duobus 

 atris iride flava, anteriori pupilla alba, posteriori ca_-co. Striga margina- 

 lis flava. Posticae basi obscurae striga e maculis quinque flavis, apice rufis, 

 maculis sex ocellaribus, atris. Subtus flavo fuscoque variegate, ocellis 

 octo atris iride flava pupillaque coerulea. [p. 229.] 



* For instance, Lycaon and Herse are referred by Kirby (Syn. Cat. p. S7) to Hipparchia? 

 and yet on p. 363 of the same work we have Apatura Lycaon, of which Herse is designated 

 as ?. 



