( xcvi ) 



" type," since in Ed. XXI he removed it from Sphex altogether, 

 and placed it in Apis ! Again, the first species described by 

 Linne under Formica was not what all authors now call a 

 Formica, but a Caniponotus. He felt sure that, whatever 

 might be the case as to other groups, no workers on the 

 Hymenoptera had yet adopted or were ever likely to adopt 

 a principle which involved such consequences. 



The President, taking part in the discussion, said he did 

 not agree with some of the remarks that' had been made in 

 reference to Sir George Hampson's motive in adopting the 

 princijile of selecting the first species as the type of the genus, 

 for he thought Sir George was firmly persuaded that his was 

 the only method capable of leading to stability in nomencla- 

 ture, and that the rest of the zoological world would finally 

 be converted to his way of thinking. He had much sympathy 

 with the contention that bis method would save an immense 

 amount of time spent in bibliographical research. Had that 

 method been acted upon from the first, it would, no doi 

 have simplified procedure and placed nomenclature on a 

 firmer basis. But Sir George had come into the world a 

 century and a half too late. His mission should have com- 

 menced with Linnaeus himself, with his pupil Fabricius, and the 

 other entomologists of the time, not one of whom entertained 

 the idea of fixing the first species as the type of the genus. 

 As a member of the International Committee on Entomological 

 Nomenclature, he had recently been asked for an opinion 

 on the disputed question of the geno-type of Cimex, Linn., 

 and in endeavouring to arrive at one that would be in accord 

 with the rules of the International Code, he met with difficulties 

 of various kinds. But this, he thought, was a very excep- 

 tional case, and the chief difficulties he found in dealing with 

 it, were the result of the arbitrary action of one or two of the 

 older authors, who refused to accept the fait accompli, and 

 proceeded to undo the work already done. Theirs was the 

 kind of action which Sir George Hampson would like to see 

 foUowed at the present day. It had only led to the confusion 

 and the waste of time, which he deplores, and even if we had 

 no moral obligation to the workers of the past, the great 

 inconvenience for zoologists in every branch which would 



