INSECT NAMES. 



59 



entomologists may find the same species in different places and both will 

 describe and name it, using- different names. Both names cannot 

 be \ised, and it is now agreed that the name which was first published 

 shall be used. This again causes great confusion, as people cannot 

 ao-ree which was the name first used. 



It can be seen that the naming o£ insects is a very difficult mat- 

 ter; there are, for instance, some 2,500 species of grasshoppers and 

 locusts described; of these 

 perhaps 400 are known to 

 live in India, but there are 

 probably also in India some 

 400 more which have not yet 

 been described; it is no easy 

 matter to know, first, if any 

 Indian grasshopper is the 

 same as one of the 400 

 already described in India; 

 second, whether it is the 

 same as one of the 2,500 

 described from all parts of 

 the world; or third, whether 

 it is new; if it is new, that 

 is, not yet described, it must 

 be described as a new species 

 and perhaps as a new genus. 

 As locusts and grasshoppers 

 make up only one of over 

 200 families of insects, it 

 is clear that it is no easy 

 matter to use the scientific 

 names of insects correctly. 



In this book scientific names are not much used; it is as easy to learn 

 about the Bombay locust as it is about Acridium sicccincitcm, L. Persons 

 who see an insect in the field and know that it is Pentadact^/lortJiopteroi' 

 des vigintioctonigropuncttdomaculata N. are apt to forget whether it is a 

 grasshopper or a beetle and whether it is injurious or not. No good 

 is done by hurling scientific names at an insect in the field. It is far 

 more important to bo able to recognise a cockchafer, to know that its 

 grub lives in the ground and eats roots, and to know that, if one is found, 

 others are likely to be there and should Ije destroyed before they lay 

 eggs. As far as possible, plain English names have been used for the 



Fio. 89. 

 Caterpillar, Pupa and Moth. 



