SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 263 



view to the exchange of British against continental coleoptera. I am 

 particalariy anxious to obtain from British collectors specimens of any 

 ■of the following species, and should esteem it a great favour if anyone 

 can send me examples of any of them, viz: — Myllacna fotiieri, Matt., 

 M. iiia^ioni, Mat., Medon iidcofer, Peyr., Steniis exufiiiis, Er., S. osciilatoy, 

 Rye, S. Jdesentretteri, Rosen., Homaliiun rii;jidipenni', Rye, H. exii/tiiim, 

 Gyll., H. tiraciUconic, Fair., Brija.vis cotus, Saul., lji/thini(s ;/labratus, 

 Rye, Euthia t^ciidmaenoidea, Steph., Neuraphes planifrons, Blatch, 

 Scydmae7iHS poireri, Fow., Culenis latifrnns, Curt., Anuotoma similata, 

 Rye, A. clavicornis, Rye, A. lanicollu, Rye, Ci/rtusa miniita, Ahr., 

 Orthojicnis iiiiindus, Mat., 0. pimctatalus, Mat., Ptinidium kraatzi, Mat., 

 Ptilinm brevicolle, Mat., ActiditiDi concolor, Shp., Microptiliuni pul- 

 chellum, AIL, Pt'mella hritannica, Mat., Trichopteryx obscae^ia, Woll., T. 

 chanijdonis, Mat., T. am/usta, Mat., T. fratercula, Mat., Syncalypta 

 JiirNiita, Shp., C'ardiophorus fonnosus, Curt., Tetratoma desniare^ti, Lat., 

 Abdera bifasciata, Marsh., Salpinyns aeratus, Muls., Cathoriiiinceius 

 so«».s, Rj"e, Antlionoiini!^ britannicus, Desb., Apion ryei, Blk., A. sca- 

 tellari, Kirb., L'haetocnenia xubcoerulea, Kirb., Lonyitarsas distmyiwnda, 

 Rye, Klmh siibinolacetts, Muls., Heterocerus britannicus, Kuw., llyobates 

 glabrii-entris, Rye, Homalota hypoyaea, Rye, H. exavata, Shp., H. alpea- 

 tris, Heer, H. fallaciosa, Slip., H. defunnis, Kr., H. ereinita, Rye, H. 

 curtipennis, Shp., H. ijicipes, Th., H. excellens, Kr., H.fttnyivora, Th., 

 H. pnberula, Shp., hi. atuiiiaria, Kr., H. perexiyiia, Shp., H. caneacens, 

 Shp., H. exiniia, Shp., H. planifmns, Wat., H. cribriceps, Shp. — M. 

 Morel, No. 1, Rue Bosio, Paris, 16e. Auyust Vlth, 1904. 



i^ClENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Note on generic types and specific names. — There is a review 

 of the fourth volume of Tke Natural History of the British Lepidoptera 

 in the last number of the Irish Naturalist, in which Mr. Carpenter 

 seems to have been unaware of the causes of the differences of the 

 names of the genera of Sphinges in this work and in the Ucvision of the 

 Sphinyidi's of Messrs. Rothschild and Jordan, who seem to have taken 

 the first species in a genus as the type of it. Bearing on this, I do not 

 think that the line taken by these authors was the intention of our 

 older authors, as in those days there was but little knowledge of forms 

 of species, and the endeavours of each seem to have been to arrange 

 the whole system of nature in one long line, with futile attempts to 

 discover missing links, or in a series of circles more or less convergent. 

 Mr. Guenee in his work on Noctuelites et Phalaenites, often designated 

 the insect he considered as his type by printing the word " type " against 

 its name, and, except when there was only one species in the genus, it 

 was rarely or never the first species. Westwood, in his British Moths 

 and their transformations, in giving reasons for not putting the typical 

 genus Sphinx at the head of the family, states : — " I therefore place 

 the genus SpMnx in the middle of the family, which is commenced 

 and terminated by less typical species, Avhich exhibit the characters of, 

 and thus point, the way to, other groups." 



Regarding another point under discussion I do not think that many 

 zoologists will agree, as Mr. Wheeler seems to suggest, that a specific 

 name can be changed for convenience ; but that the name of an animal 

 first described by the author must stand, even if we find that we have 



