1902.] 163 



REVISION OF THE NOMENCLATURE OF MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA. 



BY THE RIGHT HON. LORD WALSINGHAM, M.A., LL.I)., F.R.S., &c, 



AND 



JOHN HARTLEY DURRANT, F.E.8. 

 (Continued from Vol. XXXVIII, page 29). 



Billberg's Enumeratio (1820). 



In the third edition of his Catalog (following Scudder) Staudinger 

 has adopted certain of Billberg's logonymic genonyms sinking as 

 their synonyms other genonyms well-known to all Lepidopterists. 

 That the names now employed are unfamiliar does not necessarily 

 imply that their rescue from oblivion is unjustifiable, but as logonyms 

 were also used for a few genera of Micro- Lepidoptera it becomes 

 incumbent on us to publish decisions which have already been ex- 

 pressed in litt. We have been asked whether there is any evidence 

 that the book was ever published, and whether it is not probable that 

 it was merely the privately printed catalogue of a private collection ; 

 we have also been asked whether we regard Billberg's names as valid 

 genonyms. 



Through the extreme courtesy of Professor G. Lindstrom, we 

 were enabled in 1892 to study the copy in the Library of the Academy 

 of Sciences, Stockholm, and Dun-ant made a careful transcript of the 

 introduction, and of the pages relating to the Lepidoptera. The title 

 and collation are as follows : — " Enumeratio | Insectorum | in I Museo 

 j Gust. Joh. Billberg. | Eeg. Svec. Judicii Decasterii cameralis Con- 

 silarii. | Beg. Ord. de Stella polari Equitis | Acadd. et Societt. Svec. 

 et exter Membri. | Typis Gadelianis, 1820" [= Holmiae]. 



4° pp. (i-iv) -f 138 [pp. (i-iv) unpaged = (i) title ; (ii) blank ; 

 (iii-iv) Expl. Sign. Auct. Lepidoptera, pp. 75 — 93]. 



N.B. — The abbreviation " Eg." = " Auctor hujus operis." From 

 general appearance the book would appear to have been properly 

 published, and has been accepted as published by those who have 

 dealt with it. 



As little appears to be known among Lepidopterists about Bill- 

 berg, his Enumeratio, or his Collection, it may be well to reprint what 

 of importance is known to us on the subject. 



Hummel (A.D.), Essais Entomologiques, IV, 3—4 (St. Peters- 

 bourg, 1825), wrote thus of " Enumeratio Insectorum in Museo G. 

 J. Billberg. 1820. in 4 " :— 



" Mr. Ego a fait tout son possible pour augmenter la confusion dans la synony- 

 niie des genres, en cre'ant de nouvelles denominations absurdes et qui ne prouvent 

 qu'une seule chose : l'envie de placer son Ego apres des noms tels qu' Olethrus au lieu 



