18SS.1 203 



genera ; if so used it is not, at any rate, Cimex. of Linne, but is a 

 misappropriation and misleading. I apprehend this is not the only 

 misapplication of an old generic name. 



The question of Acanthia versus Salda, which similarly has 

 adherents for or against respectively, as cited by Eeuter, turns in 

 some aspects partly upon the solution of the previous question 

 Cimex or Acanthia. 



"While I still differ from my respected friend Renter, I can yet 

 agree with him in saying " Wir stehen ja noch nicht am Ends der 

 Wissenschaft." Names are only appliances and outworks that Science 

 uses in erecting her temple, yet it is rationally important for progressive 

 stability that revision, restoration, and addition should be made on just 

 principles. What constitutes a genus is still a matter of individual 

 opinion : the rage is to magnify specific differences to generic pro- 

 portions, in which process there is a race for priority, and thus new 

 names are created to-day only to be abolished to-morrow — sometimes 

 by the author himself. So far from being at the end of science we 

 are yet but at the beginning. There is no finality in science. 

 Doubters of current doctrine may have a wider and truer basis of 

 faith than the absolute believer of the period ; the scepticism of one 

 generation becomes the orthodoxy of another, and this, again, the 

 Btarting-point for the acquisition of new insight. 



8, Beaufort Q-ardens, Lewisham : 



2Qth December, 1882. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE LARVA OF DICYCLA 00. 

 BY WILLIAM BUCKLEE. 



The furious salt gale of the 29th of last April damaged the trees 

 in most localities to such an extent, that it was a hopeless task to go 

 beating for the larvae usually taken by that process in May ; but, of 

 course, there were some trees so situated as to be guarded by high 

 ground from the stroke of the blast, and from one such oak tree my 

 friend, Mr. Ilellins, was fortunate enough to obtain the larva of the 

 above named species. 



As far as we know, neither the larva nor the imago had been taken 

 in Devonshire before, so it is an addition to the local fauna of that 

 county. 



When first taken, 19th of May, it was not come to full growth, 

 being less than an inch in length, and was preparing for a moult, so 

 that its appearance puzzled Mr. Hellins, who sent it to me as perhaps 



