chap.il] classification and nomenclature. 25 



A generic name is always written with a capital initial U-t u-r. 

 A specific name is always commenced with a small letter even 

 when it is derived from a proper name. 



A name, to be accepted as valid, must be (1) published and (2) 

 defined. By publication it is meant that the public can purchase 

 copies ni the description in a form other than manuscript and the 

 earliest date on which such matter is accessible is tin- date of publi- 

 cation. Definition must convey, b) description or illustration or 

 both, information sufficient to enable the author's conception to be 

 recognised. A name published without description is therefore 

 invalid ; example, Plotheia nephelotis was published as a name by 

 Lefroy in "Indian Insect Life" but no description has ever been 

 given and this name must therefore be disregarded as a no me n 

 nudum (" bare name " 1. 



\ valid name, once published, is inviolable and may not be 

 changed even by the author except in the case of a printer's error, 

 for which there is evidence. An exception is made in the case ot 

 adjectival specific names, whose terminations may be (hanged to 



e with the gender of the name of the genus in which the 



species is placed. 



The same name may be used for a species .is is applied to the 

 genus in which such species is contained. Example: Cossus cosshs . 

 All confusion is avoided by the use of different initial letters in 

 each grade. 



In writing names of animals we usually add the name (often 

 contracted) of the author of the specific name. Example: Phycita 

 infusella, Meyr. 



Names of families are indicated by the suffix -da and of sub- 

 families by -nee. Such names are usually formed from the name of 

 the oldest (i.e. Inst published) genus included in them. 



It is impossible to enter here into the question of "types," sub- 

 specific nomenclature and various other details, which are better 

 suited for discussion in technical publications. The desirability of 

 having a universally accepted and permanently stable system of 

 nomenclature is unanimously agreed upon by systematic and eco- 

 nomic workers alike and this result is only likely to be achieved 

 by the acceptance by economic entomologists of the results attained 

 by a rigid application of the rules of nomenclature. In this connec- 

 tion the words written by Spence in 1 8 3 4 are no less applicable 

 todaj : "Knowledge as to the structure, habits and economj ol 

 insects ought to be the grand and ultimate aim of entomologists; 

 but this knowledge can be neither acquired nor diffused without 

 matic classification, which is the dictionary that must enable 

 us duly to read the great book of Nature, and to which therefore, 



