Article XX. THE GENERIC NAMES ECHIMYS AND 

 LONCHERES. 



By J. A. ALLEN. 



The generic names Echimys and Loncheres have a rather in- 

 volved history. The genus Echimys was first named by Etienne 

 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, in a work written in " 1808 ou 1809," but 

 never published, as we learn from his son Isidore. 1 The name 

 Echimys was first published in an abstract of a paper by F. Cuvier, 

 on the dental characters of mammals, in 1809,* the entire refer- 

 ence to Echimys being as follows : " Dans 1' ordre des rongeurs, 

 pour ne parler que des genres, 1' auteur etablit les suivans, en 

 reunissant les dents semblables, on en separant celles qui dif- 

 ferent ; i. avec M. Geoffroy, celui des Echimys forme du lerot a 

 queue doree et du rat epineux de d' Azara." 



In 1812, F. Cuvier, in the third part of his ' Essai sur de nou- 

 veaux Characteres pour les genres des Mammiferes,' treated the 

 genus Echimys at length, 3 describing and figuring the dentition of 

 the only two species mentioned by him as belonging to this 

 genus, namely, ' le rat epineux ' 4 (pi. xv, fig. 14) and ' le rat a 

 queue doree' 5 (pi. xv, fig. 15), the same species originally 

 referred by him to Echimys. . His description and figures show 

 clearly, however, that the two species are not congeneric, as 

 genera are now recognized, and it becomes necessary to fix upon 

 one of them as the type of Echimys? 



In 1825 F. Cuvier, in his ' Dents des Mammiferes ' (p. 185 and 

 pi. Ixxiii), again referred to the genus Echimys and figured the 

 dentition of E. dactylinus. In his reference to the genus he 



1 Notice sur les Rongeurs epineux, designes par les auteurs sous les noms d' Echimys^ 

 Lonchere, Heteromys etNclomys, par M. Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Mag. de Zoologie, 

 2 ser., 1840. Mammiferes, pll. xx-xxix, pp. 1-57. Cf. pp. i and 2. 



2 Bull. Soc. philom., No. 24, Sept., 1809, p. 394. 



3 Annales du Mus. d' Hist. Nat., XIX, 1812, pp. 283-285, pi. xv, figs. 14 and 15. This same 

 plate, with these figures, is republished by G. Cuvier, in his ' Ossemens fossiles ' Gzd ed., V, 

 pt. i, 1823, pi. i), and his remarks respecting the osteological characters of " Les echimys" are 

 doubtless based on the two species whose dentition is here figured. No particular species, 

 however, is mentioned, beyond what is implied by the reference to the figures. 



4 Echimys spinosus Desmarest (1817, ex E. Geoffroy, MS.). 



5 Echimys cristatus Desmarest (1817, ex E. Geoffroy, MS.) = Myoxus chrysurus Zimmer- 

 mann, 1780. 



6 It appears from Desmarest (Npuy. Diet, d' Hist. Nat., nouvelle ed., X, 1817, pp. 54-59), 

 and also from I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (/. c.\ that E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, in his manu- 

 script work (circa 1809), referred seven species of Spiny Rats to the genus Echimys. These 

 were first published by Desmarest in 1817, under E. Geoffrey's manuscript names, Desmarest 

 giving " Geof.," " Geoff.," " Geoffr.," or " Geoffroy " as the authority fur the names in each 



[December. i8qq\ [257] 17 



