58 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



but bad weather again interfered with his work. Here the bag 

 included two pleasing varieties of Triphana orbona, four Aporo- 

 phyla nigra, two Cosmia palcacea, and two Noctiia depuncta, 

 a species which was practically over, the specimens being much 

 worn. 



Kitchener's Meads, St. Albans. 



" CURRENT CRITICISM." 

 By G. W. Kirkaldy. 



I CANNOT accept Mr. Distant's explanation (Entom. xl. 2) of the 

 mistake he has made in the synonymy of Cicadetta annulata and 

 hageni. Mr. Distant (on p. 166 of the * Catalogue of Cicadidae') 

 first positively gives Hagen's annulata as a synonym of Brulle's, 

 then (on p. 168) cites it as a supposed separate species. If he 

 had intended to mean that Hagen's species was composite, he 

 would, as elsewhere in the Catalogue, have written " {part) " 

 after each citation. Fieber does not give, as a synonym of 

 hageni, "part of Hagen's species," but the ivhole, and the two 

 forms are still regarded as distinct by the best palaearctic 

 authority, viz. Dr. Puton. The fact is that Mr. Distant, by 

 mistake, inadvertently cited " Cicada annidata, Hagen," as a 

 synonym of C. annulata, Brulle ; and on p. 166 of the Catalogue 

 the entire reference to Hagen under " annulata " should be 

 deleted. I was not carping at what is really a trivial error, but 

 simply pointing it out for adjustment. 



Mr. Distant has misunderstood my remarks on Amyot's 

 mononymics. It is absurd to suppose that I was not aware that 

 Stal and Karsch adopted them. I did not say Amyot's mono- 

 nymics have no place in the literature of binomial nomenclature, 

 but that they " have no place in binomial nomenclature," i. e. 

 they cannot be justly used therein. Amyot founded his system 

 expressly to supplant that of Linnaeus, and anyone who will read 

 Amyot's preface, and study the application of the names in the 

 body of the work, will, I am sure, at once rule them out of court 

 for use in binomial nomenclature. 



The remark that accuracy of dates seems to be a minor 

 matter with Mr. Distant was an expression of my opinion, 

 founded on solid facts. It will be necessary only to refer to one 

 of Mr. Distant's most recent publications, viz. the ' Fauna of 

 British India' — Rhynchota, vols, i.-iii. (1903-6), and pick out 

 citations at random : — 



Leptocorus, Hahn — vol. i. p. 418 — (wrongly cited as a syno- 

 nym of Serinetha, which is of later date) was founded 1833, not 

 1831 ; many of Hahn and Schaffer's genera in the ' Wanzen- 



