NO. 2 OPINIONS /8 TO 8l I5 



OPINION 79 



Case of Lamarck's (iSoia) Systeme des Animaux 



SANS VeRTEBRES 



Summary. — "Rigidly construed," Lamarck's (1801a) Systeme des Animaux 

 sans Vertebres is not to be accepted as designation of type species. 



Statement of case. — Dr. J. Chester Bradley has submitted to 

 the Commission the following question : 



Is the Systeme des Animaux sans Vertebres of Lamarck, 1801 * to be 

 accepted as designating types of genera? 



In the work cited, Lamarck, after the description of each genus, cites at 

 least one species, frequently two, which would at first sight appear to be mere 

 examples and not construable as designated types. 



But on p. viii he states : " Pour f aire connoitre d'une maniere certaine les 

 genres dont je donne ici les caracteres. j'ai cite sous chacun d'eux une espece 

 connue, ou tres-rarement plusieurs, et j'y ai joint quelques synonymes que je 

 puis certifier; cela suffit pour me faire entendre." 



This work was not accepted by Rohwer" nor by Viereck' in their careful 

 attempts to fix the types of the genera of sawflies and of ichneumonwasps. 

 It has been accepted in a paper by Morice & Durrant,'' but these authors accept 

 several works that clearly do not fix generic types in the sense of tlie Code. 



Discussion. — In another Opinion (No. 8i, on Cimex) the Com- 

 mission has not interpreted this book by Lamarck as fixing types, 

 and no new evidence is now presented which appears to warrant the 

 reversal of this interpretation. In the view of the Commission, 

 Lamarck cites a " known species, or very rarely several " as examples, 

 in order to illustrate the genera, but rigidly construed, he does not 

 fix the types. 



^ Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoin de Monet chevalier de. Systeme des 

 animaux sans vertebres, ou Tableau general des classes, des ordres et des 

 generes de ces animaux .... Par J. B. Lamarck .... Paris, Deterville, An 

 ix — 1801, viii, 452, p. fold, tables, 20 cm. 



^ Rohwer, Sievert Allen .... II. The genotypes of the sawflies and wood- 

 wasps, or the superfamily Tenihredinoidea. By S. A. Rohwer .... Wash- 

 ington, 1916, < Technical series, No. 20, part H., U. S. Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Bureau of Entomology. 



'Viereck, Henry Lorenz .... Type species of the genera of ichneumon- 

 flies. By Henry L. Viereck .... 1914, < Smithsonian Institution, U. S. 

 National Museum, Bulletin 83. 



* Morice, F. D. & John Hartley Durrant. The authorship and first publica- 

 tion of the " Jurinean " genera of Hymenoptera : Being a reprint of a long 

 lost work by Panzer, with a translation into English, and introduction, and 

 bibliographical and critical notes < Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1914: 339-436. 



