168 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



THE TYPE OF THECLA, Fabr. 

 By a. G. Butler, Ph.D. 



In Marshall and De Niceville's 'Butterflies of India,' vol. iii. 

 p. 298, Mr. de Niceville observes : — " In taking T. spini, Wiener 

 Verzeichniss, which occurs in Europe and Northern and Eastern 

 Asia, as the type of the genus Thecla, I follow Mr. S. H. Scudder, 

 Mr. W. F. Kirby, and Messrs. Godman and Salvin, rather than 

 Mr. A. G. Butler, the last adopting hetulce, Linnreus, a European 

 and North Asiatic species. The latter is, however, the type of 

 Dalman's genus Zejyhyrus." 



In Dr. Scudder's "Historical Sketch," the plan adopted for 

 deciding what the type of a genus is, to either take the omission 

 of species (noted under the original description) by subsequent 

 authors as restrictive, and applying the generic name to the 

 residuum ; or, where no reduction has been made, to accept the 

 dictum of the first subsequent author who indicates a type. If 

 neither action has been taken by a previous author, Scudder 

 himself fixes the type, selecting one- of the original species. 



If Dr. Scudder had followed his own rule consistently, there 

 would have been no reason why his decisions should not have 

 been accepted as final ; but in one case he ignores a genus 

 because he says it consists of heterogeneous material, whereas, 

 in another case, he extracts a heterogeneous species from the 

 middle of a crowd in order to upset a properly constituted genus 

 based upon that insect (vide Cythrsrias, which is absolutely 

 synonymous with Hetcsra), cf. Grajjhium, Pterourus, &c. 



On Scudder's own showing. Leach, in 1815, included hetidce, 

 pruni, and qaerciis under Thecla (omitting spini) ; therefore the 

 subsequent action of Dalman in taking hetulce as type of his new 

 genus Zepthyrus was valueless, unless it could be shown that 

 T. hetulce and T. quercus represented different genera. To re- 

 suscitate spini as type of Thecla is to ignore the restrictive plan 

 by which Scudder himself was generally guided, and thus reduce 

 the firm basis upon which the type question was being settled, 

 to the quaking bog of earlier times. We want no autocratic 

 authority to step in and assert that " in this case the restriction 

 of a genus may be conveniently ignored," but a definite rule, 

 without exceptions, which all may be able to follow. 



Under the circumstances, there is not the slightest question 

 that the type of Thecla must be either hetulce or quercus, and, 

 until some structural character is discovered by which these 

 two species can be generically separated, Zephyrus must be 

 regarded as a synonym of Thecla, the general opinion and 

 decision of entomologists up to 1872, that hetulce was the type, 

 being accepted. 



