The Classification of Butterflies 



tinctions which exist, but which are often wholly overlooked by 

 the uneducated and unobservant. It is not, however, necessary 

 that the student should at the outset attempt to tax his memory 

 with all of the long scientific names which he encounters in this 

 and similar books. The late Dr. Horn of Philadelphia, who was 

 justly regarded, during the latter years of his life, as the most 

 eminent student of the Coleoptera, or beetles, of North America, 

 once said to the writer that he made it a religious duty not to try 

 to remember all the long scientific names belonging to the thou- 

 sands of species in his collection, but was content to have them 

 attached to the pins holding the specimens in his cabinets, where 

 he could easily refer to them. The student who is engaged in 

 collectingand studying butterflies will very soon come, almost with- 

 out effort, to know their names, but it is not a sin to forget them. 



In writing about butterflies it is quite customary to abbreviate 

 the generic name by giving merely its initial. Thus in writing 

 about the milkweed butterfly, Anosia plexippus, the naturalist 

 will designate it as ''A. plexippus." To the specific name he 

 will also attach the name of the man who gave this specific name 

 to the insect. As Linnaeus was the first to name this insect, it is 

 proper to add his name, when writing of it, or to add an abbre- 

 viation of his name, as follows: ''A. plexippus, Linnaeus," or 

 "Linn." In speaking about butterflies it is quite common to 

 omit the generic name altogether and to use only the specific 

 name. Thus after returning in the evening from a collecting-trip, 

 I might say, " I was quite successful to-day. I took twenty 

 Aphrodites, four Myrinas, and two specimens of Atlantis." In 

 this case there could be no misunderstanding of my meaning. I 

 took specimens of three species of the genus Argynnis—A. 

 aphrodite, A. myrina, and A. atlantis; but it is quite enough 

 to designate them by the specific names, without reference to 

 their generic classification. 



Synonyms.— \X is a law among scientific men that the name 

 first given to an animal or plant shall be its name and shall have 

 priority over all other names. Now, it has happened not infre- 

 quently that an author, not knowing that a species has been de- 

 scribed already, has redescribed it under another name. Such a 

 name applied a second time to a species already described is 

 called a synonym, and may be published after the true name. 

 Sometimes species have had a dozen or more different names 



67 



