ENTOMOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 169 



have uoticed that I have explained a considerable number of 

 the names of the insects, and that some are left unexplained. 

 The fact is that many names have no explanation. Systematic 

 entomologists, when they iind new genera crowding on them, 

 are quite at a loss for suitable names. They can manage 

 pretty well with the specific name, because they can take one 

 of the chief characters which marks the species, and give its 

 synonym in Gfreek or Latin. But this is not to be done with 

 the generic title, and so they are driven to various expedients 

 — such as calling a new genus after the name of some particular 

 friend, or a favourite child, or perhaps a pet dog or cat. 

 Having exhausted their resources, there yet remains another, 

 which will account for some of the remarkable names which 

 we see in entomological lists. Cut up some paper into small 

 squares, and write upon each of them a letter of the alphabet 

 — a child's toy alphabet will answer still better. Take at 

 random half a dozen letters, taking care to have a vowel or 

 two among them, arrange them on the table, and try if they 

 can be made into a pronounceable word. If not, take some more 

 letters and try again ; and when a word is at last formed, there 

 is the generic name ready. If a sort of classical air be thought 

 necessary, all that is required is to add us or um at tlie end 

 of it. 



We now come to the "Weevils with elbowed antennae, the 

 first family of which is the Brachyderidae. In these insects 

 the head is short, wide, and set on the thorax without any 

 separate neck, a peculiarity which h'as gained for the family 

 the name of BrachyderidoG, or ' short-necks.' 



Our example of this family is Sitones lineatus, which is 

 represented on Woodcut XVII. Fig. 4. This genus is known 

 by the possession of wings, the short beak, and the third joint 

 of the antennae, which is shorter than the second. About 

 fourteen British species of this genus are acknowledged. The 

 present species is a pretty though not a brilliant insect. The 

 ground colour is black, but the body is clothed above with 

 scales of a warm-brown hue, while the under surface of the 

 body is similarly clothed, but with scales having a silvery 

 lustre. There is a central furrow on the disc of the thorax, and 

 a rather deep impression across its apex. The elytra are 



