THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Vol. XX.] OCTOBEE, 1887. [No. 293 



NOTES ON ENTOMOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION. 

 By Geo. Vernon Hudson. 



In an isolated country like New Zealand, where there are no 

 public collections of insects and very few standard works of 

 reference accessible, the entomologist who wishes to correctly 

 ascertain the names and relationships of his insects is beset with 

 difficulties, and the complete inefficiency of the present system of 

 classification and nomenclature is made only too apparent. In 

 the following notes I wish to draw the attention of your readers 

 to a few suggestions, which I think would much simplify the 

 present arduous task of arriving at the name of an insect. 



In the first place, it appears to me that entomologists have no 

 clear idea as to what ought to constitute family difl'erences, 

 generic diff"erences, and specific differences ; and that a diversity 

 of structure, &c., that one regards as very unimportant, another 

 considers sufficient to establish a new genus or even family upon. 

 Again, I think that the use of the generic name has been com- 

 pletely lost sight of. If I understand correctly, the object of the 

 genus was to facilitate the finding of the species ; but now that 

 genera are so excessively numerous and founded on such trifling 

 differences, they are, in the majority of cases, just as hard to trace 

 out as the species themselves ; hence I contend that the present 

 generic name is quite useless. It will thus be seen that I advocate 

 a vast increase in the extent of genera and a great reduction of 

 their number. The same argument will apply to families, whose 

 members should have many very marked differences in common, 



ENTOM. — OCT. 1887. 2 I 



