XXXIX 



Entomologist finds in an old library, an unknown or rejected work, by 

 an obscure writer, with imperfect descriptions. He hastens to make 

 his discovery known to the entomological world, thinking to benefit 

 science by bringing forward prior names to those in general use. But 

 it is injurious to the cause of science to alter a name that is thoroughly 

 established and in general use, and adopted by all the great authors 

 of former days. The question is, as I have said above, a very difficult 

 one, and I have probably erred myself on the subject, but let all those 

 desirous to propose changes of well known names look carefully 

 through the earliest editions of all the old authors, and not fall into 

 such mistakes as Staudinger made in proposing the name of Sinon for 

 Podalirius, and Kirby in proposing Croceus for Edusa. Fabricius 

 bestowed the name of Edusa upon the clouded yellow in 1776, but 

 Kirby, on the supposition that he did not do so till 1787, gave pre- 

 ference to that of Croceus, given by a writer called Fourcroy in an old 

 forgotten work on the Entomology of Paris, published in 1785. 



The origin of our British Lepidoptera is a subject of great 

 interest ; and in an article on the subject on the " Entomologist's 

 Monthly Magazine," Vol. VIII. p. 45, Dr. Jordan writes: "The 

 British Isles were, without doubt peopled with insects by migration 

 from the continent, and the junction of England to the continent was 

 probably on the eastern side, where the North Sea now rolls ; and if 

 the inter drainage of Europe were upon anything like its present 

 plan, the British Channel must have been a vast estuary, leading to 

 the mouth of the Rhine. Whilst England was then part of the con- 

 tinent, there must have been a -constant, steady migration from the 

 German side, of all the insects fitted to live in our island." 



This is a very ingenious theory I admit, but can it be completely 

 borne out by facts. And again, why should there not have been 

 insects and plants in the British Isles at quite as ancient a date as in 

 Germany, Italy, or even Asia ?' I am quite willing to admit that 

 some have migrated and that others have been introduced through 

 the agency of man ; but that all have done so I cannot. If we take 

 Erebia epiphron as an illustration, it is evident that it could not have 

 reached our mountains from the Alps, or the Pyrenees. It is not 

 found in the Scandinavian peninsula, so we cannot suppose it to have 

 come from thence. It is a purely mountain species, and not simply 

 an inhabitant of colder regions ; so that a glacial epoch alone would 

 not be sufficient to explain its being amongst us, without there was a 



