June, T909.] Dow : Origin of Entomological Names. 53 



The Roman word for butterfly \% papilio — a Sanskrit root. The 

 lexicographers were wrong in comparing it with, pavilio. The root is 

 "pal," to stroke. This was duplicated like a host of other roots. 

 Its nearest analogue is palpare. Compare the entomological term 

 '■'■palpi,''' the organs with which an insect strokes its food into the 

 maxillge, and again into its labial attachments. The substantive 

 ending is common. Compare ///'/c', the chirping sparrow ; tenebrio, 

 literally the doer of deeds in the dark, hence the trickster ; steliio, 

 the newt, the name coming from the stellar shape of the five toes of 

 each foot. 



In prehistoric times men were too busy in the struggle for exist- 

 ence to notice useless insects. They named only those which bit or 

 stung or furnished food. It was left for the children at play to ob- 

 serve and name the rest. They saw the creature flying slowly with 

 palpitating wing-motion clearly discernible. Thay also saw the 

 butterfly alight and stroke its wings before becoming motionless. 

 Virgil and the poets use the word papilio as meaning the dash of color 

 flitting by in the sunlight and adding a charm to the landscape. 



We may also best consider at this juncture some of the onomato- 

 poetic names applied by children and subsequently incorporated into 

 the language. Gryllus {ypiAht<i) is their attempt to imitate the stridu- 

 lation of the common cricket. Cicada, the harvest fly, if pronounced 

 with a soft ch sound, as it undoubtedly was, has an obvious origin. 

 The Greek rirrt^ sounds like a stick drawn along a picket fence. It 

 describes the European equivalent to Cicada tibicen to a nicety. 

 Homer says orators should copy this sweet sound. It offended Vir- 

 gil's ears most horribly. Homer would be a pleasanter companion on 

 a collecting trip than Virgil. He had a better disposition in adver- 

 sity. Note also the poetry of Latreille — tibicen, the flute player. 



Curculio, the grain weevil, occurs once only in Plautus. The 

 duplication and termination are the same as in papilio. Compare 

 curvics, Latin, curve, English, coluber, the Latin for snake. The 

 Curculio is the insect which as a larva is footless and makes a circle of 

 itself in its home. As an adult its head and body make a pronounced 

 curve. 



A large number of Greek names, similar in form, have so far de- 

 fied analysis, for example, cimex, sphex, culex, pulex, sirex, etc. It 

 might be thought that since these creatures are all biters or stingers 

 the suffix ex had some meaning of the sort. This theory is unten- 



