INSECT. 



To each species of insect two names are given, 

 nainelv, n generic, and a specific, one; as, for in- 

 stance, Ac/icnmtia atropos, or the death's-head moth, 

 an insect which we now mention in order to refer to 

 our article thereon for some observations upon the 

 advantages resulting from the employment of specific 

 Dimes over the old verbose mode of distinguishing 

 species. The names of species are ordinarily derived 

 from, or are, Latin words, expressive of some specific 

 peculiarity. Thus we have PhaUcna mori, the silk- 

 worm moth, or moth of the mulberry-tree ; Melo- 

 lontha solstitialis, the summer cockchafter ; Mutilla 

 Europcea, the European mutilla ; Carabus molaceus, 

 the violet-coloured carabus, &c. &c. From the great 

 advantages resulting from the specific names, it is 

 highly essential that they should be unchaagteable. 

 The Linnsean names have conseqiient^y'<and con- 

 stantly a pre-eminence, the great Swede having first 

 introduced them into natural history. In like manner, 

 the name imposed upon any new species by the ori- 

 ginal describer thereof, is retained in preference to all 

 .subsequent ones ; unless, indeed, some signal error 

 should have occurred in the imposition of the original 

 name. Here, however, it is necessary that we do not 

 permit our love of change to overcome what is really 

 useful. It has been said, for instance, that if a speci- 

 fic name be derived from a character which is after- 

 wards discovered to be a generic one as, for instance, 

 Leistus spinibarbis, Loriccra pilicornu; or, if such 

 name be derived from a sexual character as, for 

 instance, Eucera longicornis, Eulophus ramicornis, 

 ' Kuloplnts damicornis, Euloj)hus pcctinicornis, &c. ; or, 

 again, if a name has been employed indicative of the 

 habitation or place of capture of an insect, and it is 

 afterwards discovered that the supposed habitation 

 was merely accidental as, for instance, Curculis la- 

 paihi ; or it be discovered that the insect is not con- 

 fined to the supposed locality as, for instance, Ago- 

 num Austriacum, Kaphi^ia Londinensis that in all, 

 or any of these cases, it is necessary that new specific 

 names should be given to these insects. We, how- 

 ever, see no necessity for any such step : Loricera 

 pilicornu is known throughout the entomological 

 world under that name. The object for which specific 

 names are given to animals is therefore completely 

 obtained ; and if we would change this name, and 

 give it another strictly referrable to some specific pe- 

 culiarity, we cannot see what there is to prevent a 

 would-be reformer of names from throwing down the 

 hundreds of names, derived from the heathen mytho- 

 logy, given to insects, and substituting others of his 

 own in their stead. Let us not, however, be under- 

 stood to advocate error, even though long perpe- 

 tuated. 



The name of the author by whom an insect was 

 first described and named, is generally placed in an 

 abbreviated manner after the specific 'name. Thus 

 the insect described by Linnaeus under the name 

 of Carabiu! intricatus, is spoken of as Carab. intri- 

 fatvs, Linn. Sometimes, however, when an insect 

 has been removed from the genus in which it was 

 originally placed, the new generic name is written, 

 and the name of the person by whom the removal 

 was made is added after that o'f the species. Thus 

 the Cychrus restrains, Fabr., was originally the Tcne- 

 brio rostratus, Linn. ; but Fabricius removed it to the 

 srenus Cychrus. Here, however, an evident injus- 

 tice takes place, as the name of the original de- 

 scriber of a secies ought always certainly to follow 



his own name. This difficulty might be obviated in two 

 ways : either by writing the names of the last-men- 

 tioned insect, for example, thus Cychrus, Fabr., ros- '. 

 tratus, Linn.; or, more correctly, thus Cychrus ' 

 rostra/us, Fabr. (Tenebrio, p. Linn.) the letter p 

 standing for the word part. 



Generic names are, for the most part, derived from 

 the Greek, and are generally indicative of some pecu- 1 

 liarity of the genus. Thus the genus of bees, Rlacro- 

 cera, derives its name from two Greek words, macros, 

 long, and kcras, a horn ; the antennae being very long 

 in the males. In like manner we have plati/cerus, 

 broad-horned, &c. &c. Many of the Linnaean generic 

 names are, however, destitute of any direct applica- 

 tion to the insects which such genera contain, this 

 author having employed the old natural history names, 

 usually to be met with in the early authors in the most 

 senseless manner. Indeed, this could not be avoided ' 

 in many instances, from the vague manner in which 

 the names had been employed ; and hence Linnaeus, 

 anxious to enlist them all again into the service of 

 natural history, hesitated not to employ them for ob- 

 jects which probably had not the least connexion with 

 those to which they had been applied by the ancients. 

 The universal adoption of the Lann&an nomenclature 

 throughout the zoological world has rendered these 

 blemishes too trifling to cause any confusion to ori- j 

 ginate in consequence of their adoption. For the 

 like reason, and in order to prevent the equally great 

 confusion which would arise by employing several 

 names for the same animal, naturalists have adopted 

 the plan of retaining that first proposed, unless it'j 

 should happen to be evidently incorrect, the subse- 

 quently proposed names sinking into synonyms. 



We will now, in conclusion, lay before the reader 

 a short alphabetical list of the chief entomological 

 authors, with a concise notice of their chief works, 

 which are deemed of standard merit, and which no 

 entomological library should be destitute of. There 

 are a great number of names which we have necessa- 

 rily omitted, the following being the most eminent 

 only of the writers upon this branch of natural 

 history. 



ARISTOTLE. The father of natural history. He 

 lived about the year 330, B c., and devoted consider- 

 able attention to the natural history of insects, which 

 he separated, under the name of Entoma, from the 

 Crustacea, which he called Malacostraca, and divided 

 into three sections: 1. Those with wings, Pterota, or 

 Ptilota ; 2, those with occasionally wings ; and, 3. 

 those destitute of wings. In the first were com- 

 prised various subdivisions, admirably constructed, 

 including the present orders, Culeoptera, Diptcrn, 

 which two names are still retained ; and others 

 corresponding with the Hcmiptera, Lepidoplera, 

 Diptera, &c. In the second were placed the ant 

 and the glow-worm ; and in the third, all wingless 

 insects. 



AUDOUIN (Mons. Victor). Professor of entomo- 

 logy at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris ; author of 

 numerous detached entomological memoirs ; but espe- 

 cially known by his invaluable researches upon the 

 structure of the thorax. 



BoisouvAL(Mons.) A French entomologist, espe- 

 cially distinguished for various works upon Lepido- 

 ptera ; the most valuable of which is his Natural 

 History of Lepidopterous Insects, the first volume o.f 

 which has just appeared, forming part of the Suites d 

 Buffon. 



