OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 91 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE GENERIC NAMES 

 PROPOSED FOR BUTTERFLIES: 



A CONTRIBUTION TO SYSTEMATIC NOMENCLATURE. 



BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 



Presented, Nov. 11, 1874. 



Botanicus mihi hie dicitur is, qui genera naturalia observare intelligit, 

 Botanici (nee minus Zoologici) autem nomine indignum judico Curiosum, qui de 

 generibus sollicitus non est. LINNE, Philos. botan. 



Nomina si pereuni. peril et cognitio rerura. FABRICIUS, Philos, entom. 



THREE years ago, in preparing my Systematic Revision of North 

 American Butterflies, I first became fully aware of the extraordinary 

 diversity of use of certain generic names in this group of insects ; and 

 I endeavored, by an historical study of the subject, to satisfy my own 

 mind of the proper manner in which they ought to be used. The 

 results of this study were published in the paper alluded to ; but in 

 only a few cases, and 4hen in the briefest, manner, was the process 

 stilted by which a conclusion was reached, A month or so before the 

 issue of that paper, the late Mr. G. R. Crotch published in the Cistula 

 Entomologica the results of an exactly similar study, based upon the 

 same principles, but confined to an examination of those genera of 

 butterflies which had been proposed previous to the publication of 

 Iliibners Verzeichniss bekannter Schmettlinge. The process was in 

 this case given, but, as it seems to me, by an unsatisfactory method, 

 and one in which the individual opinion of the author often affected 

 the result without the reader's cognizance. 



Mv own paper was prepared under very unfavorable circumstances ; 

 and I therefore determined to revise its conclusions de novo, and to 

 extend the study to the entire group of butterflies, as the only way in 

 which accuracy and precision could be attained. The result is given 

 in the present paper. The historical method is chosen as the most 

 satisfactory one, the use of each generic name being traced from its 

 first proposal down to the year 1874. The entire body of entomological 



