CLASSIFICATION 371 



scientific men have published conflicting statements about the 

 habits or anatomy of a particular animal, but it has sub- 

 sequently turned out that they were really dealing with different 

 species, their specimens having been incorrectly named. In 

 just the same way, it is of real importance for the economic 

 entomologist to know the correct name of the insect pest which 

 is ravaging the crops of cotton or tobacco. Closely related species 

 of insects may have very different life-histories, and unless the 

 correct name of the species is known it is impossible to be sure 

 as to the right method of attack. 



The first and one of the greatest of modern systematists was 

 the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus, who was born in 1707 and 

 died in 1778. He was the first to adopt the system of what is 

 known as binominal nomenclature, that is to say, of referring 

 to every species by two names, its generic as well as its trivial 

 name. This method was consistently applied by him for the 

 first time in the tenth edition of his famous Systema Naturae, 

 published in 1758, and by common consent systematists through- 

 out the world have agreed to regard this year as marking the 

 commencement of the scientific naming of animals. No account 

 of any names given before this year is taken, for, except by 

 accident, these were never binominal. It has been already 

 pointed out that the same species has often received two or more 

 different names, and the question naturally arises as to how the 

 correct scientific name of a species or genus is to be fixed, so 

 that a particular animal shall be known by the same name 

 throughout the world. A code of rules has been drawn up by 

 an International Commission on nomenclature for the guidance 

 of systematic workers, so as to secure as far as possible uniformity 

 of method. Among other rules, ihis lays down that generic 

 and trivial names should be given either in Latin or in Latinised 

 Greek, and that, above all, strict attention must always be 

 paid to the law of priority, the name first given taking precedence 

 over any other that may be proposed at a subsequent date. 

 Further, no generic name may be used twice among animals, 

 and no trivial name twice in the same genus. Thus, if a fish 

 and a bird have inadvertently been given the same generic 

 name, that which was proposed first would stand and the 

 other must receive a new designation. In theory these rules 

 would seem to be quite straightforward, but in actual practice 

 a certain amount of confusion has arisen with regard to the 

 names of some animals, which is due to a number of reasons. 

 Two different systematists, perhaps in ignorance of each other's 



