20 BULLETIN 200, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



this view have liimself repeated the designation while at the same time 

 proving that it is unacceptable. 



It is therefore concluded that it is necessary to distinguish between 

 acceptance and rejection of the earlier citation by the later writer. 

 If the later writer accepts the citation, he will be credited with fixation 

 if the earlier writer did not in fact make one. But if the later writer 

 rejects the citation or fails to accept it, he does not thereby make a 

 new citation of that same species. For example, if a writer says, 

 ''The genotype is Xus alhus because of designation by Jones in 1842," 

 and it can be shown that Jones did not make an acceptable designation, 

 the fact still remains that the later writer states that "the genotype is 

 Xus aTbus^'' and this is therefore acceptable as an attempt at designa- 

 tion. On the other hand, if the later writer had said, "The designation 

 of Xus alhus by Jones in 1842 is not acceptable," he would not thereby 

 be making a designation. 



This implies that it is necessary to judge in each case whether the 

 later writer accepted the earlier citation or not. Although this may 

 appear to be a difficult thing to determine, no case has yet come to 

 hand that presented this difficulty. It is usually easy to determine 

 whether the later writer makes a definite statement about the type 

 (with erroneous reasons) or merely quotes someone else. 



SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES 



1. The first valid genotype determination is the fixation. 



2. A genus is monobasic if the original author included only one 

 species as such; it is polybasic if he included more than one species 

 from his point of view. 



3. Monotypy is an acceptable form of "designation" under Article 

 30. 



4. All generic, subgeneric, and sjmonymic names are treated alike 

 as to genotype fixation, except that a genus can be effectively mono- 

 basic with several original species if all but one were there placed in 

 other subgenera. 



5. The first fixation for any of two or more objective synonyms fixes 

 the type for all the others (and for all subsequently proposed ob- 

 jective synonyms — new names) . 



METHOD AND ARRANGEMENT 



This study includes (1) an alphabetical list of generic names used 

 in the family Staphylinidae, (2) a systematic list of the changes of 

 names required by the facts here presented, (3) a list of new names 

 proposed here for preoccupied names, and (4) a complete bibliogra- 

 phy of the literature on staphylinid generic names. 



