78 



"[Families to end in ides and subfamilies in zW.] The practice 

 suggested in the following proposition has been adopted by many 

 recent authors, and its simplicity and convenience is so great that 

 we strongly recommend its universal use : — B. It is recom- 

 mended that the assemblages of genera termed families should 

 be uniformly named by adding the termination I'dce to the name 

 of the earliest known, or most typically characterized genus in 

 them ; and that their subdivisions, termed subfamilies, should be 

 similarly constructed, with the termination zV/fe." Thus, if this 

 rule be accepted,'it follows that the appellation " Tineina " should 

 be applied to a j'?^Z'family, and should indicate a division inferior 

 rather than superior to the family Tineidse. Mr. Chambers, how- 

 ever, rests his claim to the use of the term "Tineina," in the sense 

 adopted by him from the authors of the ' Natural History of the 

 Tineina,' upon the ground that the various genera or groups of 

 genera which it has been made to include do not constitute in 

 themselves a natural family. 



Alluding to the old subdivision of the group into two fami- 

 lies, Tineidae and Hyponomeutidae, by Stephens, he writes, " It 

 would be, perhaps, even more unnatural to put them all in a 

 single group of Tineids. Mr. Stainton's system, in which the 

 name Tineidae is retained for the restricted family containing 

 Tinea and its allies, is the best classification of the group with 

 which I am acquainted." 



The only objection now raised against Mr, Stainton's use of 

 the name " Tineidae," as strictly indicating a family, is that it 

 should not be made subordinate to the name " Tineina," the ter- 

 mination of which, by the British Association rules, is such as to 

 indicate an inferior subdivision. 



There are in this case two alternatives open to those who de- 

 sire to conform to the generally accepted rules of nomenclature 

 quoted above. The first is to adopt the names of the various 

 families in the sense in which they are used by Mr. Stainton and 

 others, and to change the name of the group from Tineina to 

 Tineimorpha, Tineoidea, or such like. The second is to adopt 

 the name Tineidae, in lieu of Tineina, for what is now usually re- 

 garded as a group of families, thus treating them as constituting 

 one family, and to designate the existing families as subfamilies 

 with the termination ina, now used with doubtful propriety for 

 the whole group to which they belong. 



If we would inquire into the merits of these two alternatives, 

 the first point to be considered is, what is a family ? 



Regarding it in the accepted sense as an " assembly of genera," 

 each of which possesses, in greater or less degree, the character- 

 istic feature or features of one and all of them, we must ask our- 

 selves whether any one or more than one characteristic generic 

 feature pervades the whole group of genera which have of late 

 been massed together under the name " Tineina," 



