1885.] 181 



ON THE AUTHORSHIP OP THE LETTER-PRESS IN 



VOLUMES I, Yl, AND YII of 



THE ENTOMOLOGY IN "JARDINE'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY." 



BY H. T. STAINTON, F.R.S. 



In our last number (p. 155) Mr. A. Gr. Butler has some notes on 

 ScopeJodes unicoJor, and he there says : " The genus Scopelodes was 

 characterized by Westwood on page 222," &c. I wrote to Mr. Butler 

 taking exception to his words ^^characterized hy Westwood^'' and my 

 remarks ran thus : 



" On referring to page 222 of the volume, it would seem to me 

 that the whole of the text is written by the author of the volume, 

 James Duncan — there is no intimation that a syllable was written by 

 Westwood, who had probably supplied a MS. name to the insect in 

 Mr. Hope's collection. 



" Tour note says ' The genus Scopehdes was characterized by 

 Westwood on page 222,' &c. I cannot find any indication of this in 

 the volume myself — there are no inverted commas implying any quo- 

 tation or extract from the MS. of another writer." 



To this Mr. Butler replied as follows : 



" The genus Scopelodes has always been quoted as Westwood's, 

 and Mr. Moore, who is almost hypercritical (if that be possible) in 

 the authorship and date of publication of genera, quotes it thus — 

 Scopelodes, 'Westwood, Nat. Libr.' 



" From an examination of the text in the volume it is evident 

 that Duncan was supplied by Westwood with the greater part of his 

 information, and there is every reason to believe that the characters 

 of the new genera and species were also obtained from the same 

 source : at page 209 you will see ' Asthenia podaliriaria, Westwood. 

 In supplying us with a figure of this new species, Mr. Westwood has 

 suggested the propriety of referring it, along with several others, to 

 anew genus, which he names Asthenia.' Then follow the generic 

 p characters. 



" The style of description corresponds entirely with Westwood's 



I descriptive work. See ' Cabinet of Oriental Entomology,' and other 



•\ early works by this author. At the same time, perhaps, the question 



I is worth ventilating ; Professor Westwood probably will remember 



whether he wrote the descriptions for Duncan or not." 



Acting upon this last suggestion, I next wrote to Professor 

 Westwood, and, after explaining how it happened that such a curiously 

 knotty point had arisen, I remarked : 



