xiv +. W. A. Lewis on 
The works of the old authors present other characteristics, 
which are important to be considered. Many of the old authors 
were very ignorant persons indeed, and the problem of species 
and variety was not less confounding to them than to others. 
Many described varieties of all shades as separate species ; on 
the other hand they not unfrequently described two nearly 
allied species as one insect, and it is a common thing to find 
the list-writers who scrutinize these descriptions coming to 
different determinations on this account. ‘There are some 
proved instances of those authors describing species from da- 
maged examples, and endowing the species with characters due 
to old age or rough treatment of the specimen. Then (as I fear) 
the old writers were not all what we term “ conscientious ;” 
and many copied copiously from others. The comparative 
isolation in which each author flourished perhaps made detec- 
tion unlikely ; and one of these borrowers would appear not to 
have held before his mind the notion that a rule of priority in 
the future would pry out his failings on the score of doing 
justice to him as a nomenclator. To quote Mr. Edwards once 
more :—‘ Besides the brevity of the old descriptions, many are 
defective from other causes. Often the two sexes received dif- 
ferent names ; often varieties were described as species ; often 
damaged and broken specimens were described as perfect, the 
defects being cured by imagination ; often figures were made 
by unskilled artists who omitted the specific characteristics ; or 
the figures were coloured so poorly as to be incapable of identi- 
fication; or were copies from copies, or copies from memory ; 
and often descriptions were made from unreliable figures in- 
stead of from the insect.” 
Mr. Edwards takes as an example of insufficient description 
the Papilio Troilus, Linné. I recommend the Satyride and 
Lycenide to any one who.desires to satisfy himself what some 
of the old descriptions are good for. These are large groups, 
each with a strong superficial likeness among the species ; 
both families contain a number of common European insects 
which lend themselves to observation ; the ocellated spots on 
the wings furnish characters sufficient to produce a glorious 
Jfarrago of confusion, which the old authors were not the men 
to miss. But whether the illustration be sought among the 
Papilionide, Satyride or Lycenidea, or elsewhere, the thick- 
est confusion is of course supplied in those groups which 
contain a number of closely-related species; and the genus 
Limenitis and its allies supply some instances which I shall 
advert to in another connection. 
A solitary species like Nemeobius Lucina, for instance, 
which was not fairly open to be confused with others, has 
never as a fact had bestowed upon it any name but its own. 
In cases like this, synonymic list-writers have no service that 
they can do us. 
