HISTORY. 



Linnaeus, in the tenth edition of his " Systema Naturae," Vol. 

 1, page 542, published in 1758, established the genus Alucita for 

 the plume-moths with the following six species under it in order : 

 monodactyla, didactyla, tridactyla, tetradactyla, pentadactyla and 

 hexadactyla, all placed under the heading ALUCIT^E. Some of 

 these insects had been figured and described more or less fully by 

 authors previous to the time of Linnaeus, as Aldrovandus, 1602; 

 Madam Merian, 1679; Petiver, 1702; Ray, 1710; Frisch, 1721; 

 Reaumur, 1736; and Rosel, 1746; but, as Linnaeus in the above 

 work first consistently used the binomial nomenclature, it has 

 been decided almost universally by zoologists to adopt this edi- 

 tion of the " Systema Naturae" as the starting-point in zoological 

 nomenclature. 



In 1761, Poda published his " Insecta Musei Graecencis," in 

 which, on page 94, he adopted the generic name Alucita with 

 pentadactyla L. the only species under it, and this species is there- 

 fore regarded as the type of the genus Alucita by Lord Walsing- 

 ham and other eminent authorities. Geoffroy, in 1762, published 

 the first edition of his " Histoire abrge des Insectes," in two 

 volumes. In the second volume this author, rejecting the genus 

 Alucita of Linnaeus, established the genus Pterophorus, a name 

 which he stated was given to these insects by some naturalist in 

 former times, and placed under it pentadactyla L. didactyla L. and 

 hexadactyla L. From his description of didactyla, there can be no 

 doubt that, instead of this species, he had monodactyla L. before 

 him, and therefore we must consider didactyla Geoff, the same as 

 monodactyla L. As Poda had already used pentadactyla as the 

 type of Alucita, only the species monodactyla L. and hexadactyla 

 L. could be considered as belonging under Pterophorus. 



Scopoli, in his " Entomologia Carniolica," published in 1762, 

 gives five species of plume-moths under Phalaena, which he ap- 

 pears to have used in a generic sense. In 1775, Fabricius, in his 

 " Systema Entomologiae," page 667, very improperly made use of 

 the genus Alucita for xylostella L. and nineteen other Tineids, and 

 followed Geoff roy in using Pterophorus for the plume- moths. 

 This use of these generic names he continued through all his 

 writings. The authors of the *' Systematische Verzeichniss der 

 Schmetterlinge der Wienergegend," 1776, page 144, adopted the 

 genus Alucita in the strict Linnaean sense. 



Latreille, in his " Precis des Caracteres generique des Insectes," 



