INTRODUCTION. xi 



apicosa, while Guenee has a Renodes apicosa, a native of Brazil, a 

 totally distinct species.'' 



" It is needless to occupy more space to prove the serious inconve- 

 nience inevitably connected with the promulgation of such a sys- 

 tem at the present time. ' Priority ' and 'priority alone, of 

 description, should be adopted as the only safe rule to avoid confu- 

 sion ; but it is not always an easy matter to arrive at the oldest name 

 as previously mentioned, and which may be further instanced by a 

 reference to Guenee's remark, vol. v. (i.) p. 110, on Nonagria 

 lutosa : he there states that he has effaced the name Bathyerga, 

 as being posterior to lutosa of Hiibner, although in his Index 

 in the French ' Annales,' vol. x. p. 237 (1841) he considers the 

 latter as a different species, removed by several intermediate 

 ones from lutosa ! thus showing that his views have changed with 

 time ; a quality he scarcely allows to others ; as gathered from the 

 very note on the species in question : in which, after stating that it 

 is ' assez commune eu Angleterre, et varie extremement pour lataille 

 et pour lacouleur;' he adds, 'nevertheless (Nfeanmoins) M. Stephens 

 a cree a ses depens, outre le type, deux autres especes,' viz., pili- 

 cornis and Cannae : the anachronism of these sentences renders 

 them particularly, though doubtless unintentionally, unfair. In 

 1810 only one example of the species (called then crassicornis by 

 Haworth) was known, a second (pilicornis, Haiv.) in 1812, and two 

 others before 1830, all captured in distant places and remarkably 

 unlike each other, one only (called Canuce), being smaller than the 

 others : between the period last-mentioned and 1842, two or three 

 other specimens only occurred, but after that time, by ' sugaring,' 

 the insect was discovered to be abundant. Now as the supposed 

 distinct species — crassicornis, pilicornis, and Canna — were so intro- 

 duced in the 'Illustrations,' in 1829, and the paucity of specimens 



