4 THE ENTOMOLOGIST 8 RECORD. 



Natural Sciences, Vol. II., p. 245, adopts the name. He was followed 

 by Godman and Salvin in their Biologia Centrali Americana — Bhopa- 

 locera, Vol. I., p. 1 (1879) ; these authors base their action on the 

 habitat given by Linnaeus and upon his reference to Catesby. Moore 

 in " A Monograph of Limnaina and Enploeina" published in the Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. pt. 51, p. 201-252 (1883) also adopts the same course. In his 

 " Bntterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada," p. 720 (1889) 

 Scudder discusses the proper name of the butterfly and declares that 

 there can be no doubt whatever that the American species was first 

 described by Linnaeus under the name of plexippus. None of these 

 authors, however, attempt to grapple with what is really the crucial 

 difficulty in the way of accepting this conclusion, viz. : — the occurrence 

 in all his published descriptions of the unmistakable reference to the 

 white fascia ; nor have I anywhere met with such an attempt. 



After taking into consideration the various evidence that has been 

 adduced, the following propositions are submitted as an answer to the 

 question with which this paper of)ens, so far as concerns the trivial 

 name. 



1. — The balance of argument is against the claim that the American 

 insect is the plexippus of Linneeus. 



2. — The earliest name given to that species was erippus, Cram, 

 and, if the " law of priority " is to be pedantically adhered to, this is 

 the trivial name that must be adopted. 



3. — The Fabrician name, archippus, is that by which the species has 

 been most widely known, and as changes in accustomed nomenclature 

 are to be deprecated, and as, moreover, erippus. Cram, is a varietal form 

 found in Brazil, archippus should be retained as the trivial name of the 

 species, and erippus used as the name of the variety. 



With regard to the generic name, the course of events has been as 

 follows : — Latreille in his Histoire Naturelle des Crustaces et des Insectes, 

 Tom. 14, p. 108 (1805), created the genus Danaida ; the only species 

 which he included in it was plexippus; in Genera Crustaceorum et 

 Insectorum, p. 201 (1809), he altered the name of the genus to Danaus ; 

 he gives no reason for the change, but it has been suggested that it was 

 made because the earlier name was already pre-occupied in Botany ; in 

 Encyclopedie Methodique, vol. ix., p. 10 (1816), he again changes the 

 name, whether intentionally or accidentally does not appear, to Danais 

 which is the form it has since retained ; Moore, in the monograph to 

 which allusion has already been made, states that Latreille altered 

 Danaida to Danais in 1807, and gives a reference to Illiger's Magazine, 

 vol. 6, p. 292 ; a careful search has not, however, enabled me to verify 

 the statement. Under all the variations of the name the type species 

 given is always p)lexippus ; that by this name Latreille meant the Indian 

 butterfly, although he gave it an American habitat (therein probably 

 following Fabricius), is cleai', because in the description he emphasizes 

 the presence of a white band on the fore-wings ; moreover, Godart, 

 whose work in the Encycl. Method, was done under Latreille's super- 

 vision, gives the name plexippus as synonymous with genutia. Cram. 

 This being so, and it being now held that the Indian butterfly is not 

 congeneric with the American, it follows that if any form of Latreille's 

 name be retained it must be for the genus to whicli the former belongs. 



Fabricius in his Sy sterna Glossatorum (1807) created the genus 

 Eupl(ea, of which plexippus is given as a type in the abstract in Illiger's 



