June, '04] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. I97 



service remind me of the young lady who insisted that it was 

 not at all appropriate to go out du^-g-j'-nding with anybody 

 except an entomologist. The descriptive work of the older 

 entomologists was crude and primitive, it is true, but they did 

 the best they could at that time, and the only wonder is that 

 they did so well ; and though there was less hunting for ob- 

 scure punctures and hair-splitting differences, their work will 

 line up, so to speak, with that done today ; but to graft the 

 one onto the other is at times almost like attempting to weld 

 platinum onto cast iron. Some of the older work must of 

 necessity give way to that of a more concise character ; but we 

 are in danger of forgetting that all of this is preliminary to the 

 main object, that of enabling us to go on in getting a better 

 and broader knowledge of animal-life and the inter-relation- 

 ships existing between the different subdivisions that we arbi- 

 trarily erect. Nomenclature is a means and not an end. How 

 often does the sj-stematic entomologist for a moment consider 

 whether or not the description of a new species from a single 

 individual, not always too perfect at that, which differs but 

 slightly from some other species of precisely similar habits, 

 will enable his fellow worker in the applied science, or in mor- 

 phological investigations, to solve some obscure problem of 

 insect attack or diffusion ! Does he ever stop to think that a 

 valid species is a veritable guide-post to prevent the investi- 

 gator from losing his way, while a synonym is a rock in his 

 pathway, that at best only obstructs his progress? 



Synonyms are not so bad if, after they have died and are 

 buried, they would only stay dead and out of the way ; but 

 such is not the case ; on the contrary, they are liable to be 

 suddenly resuscitated and again torment the morphologist. 

 Names that have been in use for a half or three- fourths of a 

 centur}', and are current the world over, are suddenly dis- 

 placed by one that has never come into common use, is even 

 less applicable to the insect, and for no other reason than that 

 someone a few years earlier described a form thought to be the 

 same. Mytilaspis pomorum is a good illustration, as it has 

 lately been displaced by Lepidosaphes ulmi Linn., when, as a 

 matter of fact, lyinnjeus seems to have never described the 



