121 



A study in Orthograpliy. 



By G. H. Verrall in Newmarket. 



In the year 1840, E-ondani, in his „Memoria seconda 

 per servire alla Ditterologia Italiana", entitled „Sopra alcuni 

 nuovi Generi", founded on pages 12 and 16 a new genus in 

 the Gecidomyidae which he called 



Ozirhincus 

 possibly from ö"(7] p'jyZ^' — stioking snout, but more probably 

 Rondani mistook ; for C and intended to derive his name 

 from 6;6? p'jy/o? =i sharp snout , his chief charaeter for the 

 genus being „Proboscis longa, perpendicularis, basi lata, apice 

 mucronata" ; at any rate Loew in 1845 (Dipt. Beitr. I 11) 

 called the genus 



Oxyrhynchus 

 and one year late'r (1846) the latter derivation appeared in 

 Agassiz' Nom. Zool. Dipt. 28. 



Hondani however after having seen Loew's paper 

 published in 1845, spelled his genus in Ann. Sc. Nat. Bologn. 

 (2) VI. 372 (1846) 



Ozirhy ncus 

 yielding one letter to correction ; but on page 375 reverted 

 to his former Ozirhincus. Still Loew in Dipt. Beitr. IV. 21 

 (1850) stuck to his derivation, only by a lapsus calami he 

 once put on page 21 



Oxy rynchus 

 and because the name Oxyrhynchus was preoccupied by Schön- 

 herr in 1826 (Coleo'ptera) he renamed the genus CUnorhyncha. 



In 1854, Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. (3)11,461, Bigot with his 

 habitual disregard of the simplest orthography referred to the 

 genus as 



Ozirhynchus. 



Next in 1856 ßondani in Dipt. Ital, Prodr. I. 200 

 appeared to yield to Loew, but by another lapsus calami 

 he put 



Oxyrhyncus. 



The same year the genus was dealt with in a „General 

 Index" of genera at the beginning of Walker's Vol. III of 

 Ins. Brit. Dipt.: I believe this list was compiled by Haliday 



Wiener Entomologische Zeitung, VIII. Jahrg., 3. Heft (31. März 1889). 



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