26 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOLTS COI.LECTIONS VOL. "JT) 



The question arises as to how the entry "I. Nereides" etc., for 

 instance, is to be interpreted. It will be noticed the Nereides is in the 

 plural and that " N^ereis Polyiiniia " is in the form of a binomial in 

 the singular. Hiibner, 1816, p. 8, and 1818, 4, shows that Nereides 

 was intended as Stirps, printed as plural in the text and as singular 

 Nereis in the Index. Further Hiil^ner (1816, p. 8) uses the German 

 word " Verein,'' Latin " Coitus,'' in the sense of " genus "' of other 

 authors, while in the indices both in 1816 and 1818 he uses the Ger- 

 man word " Gattungen " (Latin " genera ") in the sense of " species " 

 of other zoologists. The coitus name he prints (1816, p. 8), ex- 

 ample Hymenites, in the plural, in the text, when used alone, but in 

 the singular (example, Hymenifis diapliane p. 8) when used in a bino- 

 mial form, and in the index, he prints it in the singular (example Hy- 

 menitis) . Thus, from his other publications it seems clear: (a) that 

 the Verein = " Coitus " of Hiibner is intended to be identical with the 

 genus as used by other authors, and (b) that the next lower unit 

 " Gattung " = " Genus " of Hiibner is intended to represent the 

 "species" of other authors. Hiibner (1816, p. 8) quotes Nereides 

 as Stirps I in the plural and it seems reasonable to conclude that he 

 intended the Nereides as used in his Tentamen, i8o5, to represent 

 Stirps I. 



It is to be noted that the word " Stirps "' among early authors is 

 not used uniformly. Thus Brisson (1762, 131-132) divides groups 

 in the following serial units : Ordo, Sectio, Genus, Stirps [practically 

 a subgenus], [species]. Gronovius (1763, 5) quotes the Stirps prac- 

 tically as a genus. Hiibner (1816) clearly used the Stirps ( = Stamm) 

 as supergeneric. 



Possibly Hiibner's word " stirpium " in the Tentamen title (1806) 

 is clear to specialists, but only by consulting his other works (as 1816 

 and 1 818) does it become clear to the general zoologist that Hiibner's 

 Stirps is a supergeneric group, cited sometimes in the plural, some- 

 times in the singular. Accordingly, the position of the "stirpium" 

 of 1806 is not clear as of the date 1806. 



In seeking for an interpretation of the binomial Nereis Polyiimia 

 on the other hand it is to l)e noticed that there is a Linnaean species 

 polyiiniia quoted by Hiibner (1816, p. 11) as Mechanitis poly initio, 

 and that no combination "Nereis Polyinnia" appears to be cited in 

 1816. In hunting for the second binomial combination Limnas Cliry- 

 sippiis 1806, it is found that there is a species (1816, p. 15) cited as 

 Euploea Clirysippe, but a combination Liiiiiias Chrysippus does not 

 seem to be i)resent in Hiibner, 1816. 



