SOME PROBLEMS IN NOMENCLATURE.* 



By E. P. Felt. 



Stability of nomenclature is greatly to be desired. It is, in 

 •our estimation, more important than that an investigator should 

 have every particle of credit for discovering or recording the 

 presence of a species, though the latter should not be ignored by 

 any means. Certain peculiar questions in nomenclature exist 

 in the Cecidomyiidae, a group in which we are much interested. 

 It is hoped that this paper will provoke discussion and result in 

 an agreement which will go far towards solving some vexatious 

 questions. We desire at the outset to make this discussion abso- 

 lutely impersonal, and for that reason the writer has taken the 

 legal impersonal John Doe and some of his cousins to exemplify 

 actual conditions or to illustrate situations which might arise. 

 No significance should be attached to the dates employed, since 

 they have no reference to real cases. Furthermore the names 

 employed are nomina nitda and have no standing in nomenclature. 



Case i . 



1475. Cecidomyia floricola — Given by John Doe to yellowish 

 Cecidomyiid larvae in unopened spiraea blossoms. 



1478. Cecidomyia fioricola, C. fiavescens and Dasyneura 

 abdominalis — All reared from the same blossoms by Edward Doe. 



To what species did the larva observed by John Doe in 1475 

 belong? Can he, by any possibility, claim authorship to a species ? 



Case 2. 



1492. Cecidomyia gallicola — Described from the gall only, 

 by John Doe. 



1499. Cecidomyia gallicola — Adult reared and described by 

 John Doe. 



Does the species date back to 1492 and that name carry? We 

 wdll suppose, for the sake of argument, that it does. Fortu- 

 nately or unfortunately Richard Doe in 1575 discovered that 

 Cecidomyia gallicola (John Doe 1499) is not the maker of the gall 

 but an inquiline. He describes the maker of the gall as Lasiop- 

 tera gallicola (John Doe 1492) and proposes for Cecidomyia 

 gallicola (John Doe 1499) Cecidomyia alboscuta. Furthermore, 



*Read at the Chicago meeting. 



