1916] Wheeler — The Ant Genus Lasius and its Subgenera 169 



Ins. 4.126 (1809) sunk Lasius F. as a synonym of Formica, and 

 the Fabrician name ceased to be used till 1861, when Mayr (Europ. 

 Formicid., 49, 1861) revived and recharacterized Lasius F., 

 adopting niger L. as his type. Bingham Faun. Brit. India. Hym. 

 2, 338 (1903) and Wheeler Ann. New York Acad. Sc, 21, 165 

 (1911), also cite niger as the type. This species was also adopted 

 as the type by Morice and Durrant Trans. Ent. Soc, London, 

 1914, 9, 421-423 (1915), who gave the following reasons for the 

 change of the name: "In the Systema Piezatorum Fabricius made 

 use of Jurine's name Lasins but applied it to a genus of ants which 

 he separated from Formica L. and later authors have ignored 

 Jurine's Lasius, no doubt because the publication of the Pieza- 

 torum (1804) antedates that of the Nouvelle Methode (1807). 

 But the real date of Lasius Jrn. as we now learn, is May 30, '1801 

 (Erlangen list), § Lasius F. (1804) therefore sinks as a homonym 

 of the earlier Lasius Jrn. A new name for Lasius F. is necessary; 

 there being apparently no existing synonym, we therefore propose 

 that it be called Donisthorpea in recognition of Mr. H. St. J. K. 

 Donisthorpe's careful investigations into the bionomics of this and 

 other Heterogynous genera." 



A study of Morice and Durrant shows that the article which 

 they unearthed in the Erlangen Litteraturzeitung of 1801 was 

 published anonymously, but that in a footnote to page 7 of the 

 Kritische Revue of 1806 Panzer admitted that he was its author. 

 It is clear, furthermore, that Panzer cited Lasius and several other 

 Hymenopterous genera as Jurine's. My friend Professor Cockerell 

 writes me that he regards the Panzer article as having no taxo- 

 nomic status both because it was published anonymously and be- 

 cause it did not appear in a scientific journal. I incline to agree 

 with him, though I am compelled to admit that the publication 

 of the genera as Jurine's and not as those of the anonymous 

 author may put a different construction on the matter. This 

 evidently determined Morice and Durrant to accept Lasius and 

 certain other genera as being valid and as antedating those of 

 Fabricius. So far as I am able to learn, cases of this kind are not 

 specifically provided for in our various nomenclatorial codes. 



Accepting for the moment the correctness of Morice and Dur- 

 rant contention that Lasius Jurine must supplant Anthophora 

 among the bees and that the genus Lasius Fabr. must be renamed, 



