JO URN JLIv 



OF THE 



l^^elm ^i^ftrU lEnijCftnoicf^iic^l Socleig* 



Publishes articles relating to any class of the subkingdom Arthropoda, subject 

 to the acceptance of the Publication Committee. Original communications in this 

 field are solicited. 



Editorial. 



In the Preface to Volume IV of the "British Lepidoptera, " Mr. 

 J. W. Tutt expresses his disapproval of the method of selecting types 

 of genera used by Rothschild and Jordan in their " Revision of the 

 Sphingidae." We at first took this view as well. As Mr. Tutt ex- 

 presses it, the method appears " easy if not scientific," and he makes 

 out a plausible case for the method of subsequent restrictions. In 

 fact, considered theoretically, this method seems the only logical one. 

 Yet, after studying the subject, we find ourselves converted to Roths- 

 child and Jordan's views. The objection to the method of the 

 " Merton rules" is that it does not work in practice. Mr. Tutt ad- 

 mits that it can only be used by " one who knows," and this is an 

 admission of our contention, expressed in the June issue of this jour- 

 nal* that the method requires a complete knowledge of all the litera- 

 ture. Mr. Tutt does not seem to appreciate that in many cases no 

 one has this knowledge, and even if so there are so many possible in- 

 terpretations to the actions of subsequent authors that a fatal objection 

 hereby arises to the method. We must have something practical that 

 can be applied by every student. The method of first species seems 

 to promise this, and we therefore favor it. 



It cannot be called a new method. It is credited by Mr. T. S. 

 Palmer f to the " Stricklandian Code" of 1842. In 1S68 Mr. W. F. 

 Kirby I regarded it as an axiom that where no figure or other indication 



*Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc, xii, 120, 1904. 



t Dept. Agr., Div. Biol. Surv., N. A. Fauna, No. 23, Index generum mama- 

 lium, pp. 19-23, 1904. 



+ Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1S68, xliii. 



189 



