26 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. []ain., '03 



femora more or less brownish, especially in the male, halteres light yel- 

 low. Wings grayish hyaline, the stigma pale yellow, veins dark brown. 

 Length, J^, 5 mm. ; largest $, 6 mm. 



In woods at Goose Neck, Shrewsbury River, near Long 

 Branch, N. J., June 9-12, 1902. 



Vernacular Names Again* 



By J. Chester Bradley. 



Dr. Doran's interesting article in the November issue of the 

 EnT. News, while of value in its aim to secure better English 

 in writing vernacular names, has suggested to me the real ab- 

 surdity of these names themselves. The aim of science is to 

 be precise, and precision in designating an insect is amply se- 

 cured by our system of latin nomenclature, with which the 

 entomologist should rest content, using only such vernacular 

 names for the lay understanding as have been thoroughly 

 established by popular usage, and should not himself trj^ to 

 coin vernacular names for the masses to accept. Such words 

 as mud- wasp, blister-beetle, potato-bug, bumble-bee and others 

 that popular usage has sanctioned as good English words, are 

 never in danger of being abused. But when the Entomo- 

 logist tries to coin them he generally makes a dismal fail- 

 ure. Certainly anybody who is able to learn what insects are 

 meant by such terms as raspberry gouty gall beetle, red necked 

 blackberry gall maker, red humped apple tree caterpillar, and 

 numerous others, will experience no greater diflSculty in learn- 

 ing their only precise names — the latin ones — and to a person 

 who is not acquainted with the insects meant, the names must 

 seem absurd in the extreme. "What," such a one might 

 wonder, ' * are the red necked blackberries, the red humped 

 apple trees, and is the raspberry beetle truly afflicted with gout?' ' 



Dr. Skinner calls my attention to the fact that Strecker described a 

 Chalcid — Smicra bimaculata — in the Annual Rep. on Explor. and Surv., 

 Dept. of the Missouri (Appendix SS to Rep. Chief Engineers for 1878). 

 This species has heretofore escaped the notice of our cataloguers and re- 

 corders. Where is the type?— J. Chester Bradley. 



