56 Journal New York Entomological Society. [VoI. xvii. 



Acarits is well-named, the mite, that insect which is so small that 

 it cannot be cut in two or further divided. To the children who 

 named it, it was the smallest of living creatures. 



Blatta is the insect best characterized by the adjective lucifitga. 

 It is in Virgil the exact opposite of the sun-loving papilio. Linne 

 applied it correctly, although there are a host of other insects to 

 which it would apply just as well. To the child mind of Italy, if 

 not of earlier peoples, it meant any creepy, crawly insect which beset 

 folks when out in the woods or fields at night. 



The Syrpha of Homer was a small biting fly or gnat. Linne 

 either mistranslated or misunderstood the habits of the Syrphidae. 

 Lampynis could not possibly be mistranslated. It is doubtful whether 

 Silpha was a beetle at all. It is unlikely that Bruchus was a beetle. 



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