212 Mr. J. O. Westvvood's Descriptions 



the name of an excellent author applied to a species which is so 

 insignificant and obscure as not to possess characters sufficiently 

 marked to furnish a characteristic specific name. Other authors, 

 again, seem to delight in taking up such commemorative names 

 by way of raillery, or even from spite. Of this latter malappro- 

 priation it would be invidious to cite examples, although they are 

 well known to many naturalists and Entomologists.* 



The real principle which ought to be our guide, in the appli- 

 cation of such names, is admirably expressed in the two following 

 aphorisms of Fabricius. " Nomina trivialia ad clarissimorum 

 virorum raemoriam conservandam introducta sancte servanda. 

 Hoc unicum et summum laboris praemium caste dispensandum 

 ad imitamentum et ornamentum Entomologiae."-]- 



Can it however be said to be an " ornamentum Entomologiae" 

 to see its nomenclature defiled by instances of bad feeling or worst 

 taste ? Are these honorary titles " caste dispensanda" when the 

 names of worthy writers are wilfully conjoined for ever with insig- 

 nificant species of Scolopendrce, spiders, or other venomous or para- 

 sitic insects? I am quite willing to believe, that in many cases an 

 author has been anxious to confer a distinction on his fellow 

 labourer by such a step, but his judgment has been at fault, and 

 in some cases his desire to please has proved a source of annoy- 

 ance and ridicule. The Fabrician rule does not appear to me 

 sufficiently strong in this case. It merely says, " Scopoli hie 

 nomina trivialia aranearum recepit, at minus placent, aranearum 

 species luridse ingratse nee adhuc rite determinatse." I would go 

 much fiirther, and would erase every commemorative name of 

 this kind, known to have been suggested by the feelings 1 have 

 above spoken against, and even such as suggest any other idea 

 but that of honour to the person whose name is so commemo- 

 rated. 



Another circumstance connected with the employment of pro- 

 per names, which does not appear to me to have been suffi- 

 ciently attended to, is its adoption for all the species throughout 

 certain groups. No one advocated uniformity more than Lin- 

 naeus, and his plan of commemorative names is very worthy of 

 being pursued. "Nomina trivialia Papilionum splendidorum pa- 

 tronorum fautorumque memoriae, Pyralidum vero amatorum, 

 Tinearum denique scriptorum dicant a Linne, quem et nos secuti 

 sumus." We know, too, how carefully he followed this system, 

 even in the divisions of his Greeks and Trojan butterflies. How 



* See e. g. Smith, Introd. to Botany, by Hooker, pp. 189, 190. 

 t Philosoph. Eatomol. pp. 118, 119. 



