THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XXXIV.l JULY, 1901. [No. 458. 



NAMES AND DEFINITIONS OF HYBRIDS. 



By T. a. Chapman, M.D., F.E.S. 



Ent. Record, vol. xiii. p. 183; Dr. Standfuss, "Experiments 

 on Hybridization," reprinted from the 'Entomologist,' pp. 23 

 and 34. These two recent items remind me of a simple ex- 

 pedient for defining hybrids that, I imagine, must have occurred 

 to someone and been adopted, yet Dr. Standfuss's unwieldly 

 notation, that compels him to use a number in the text, and his 

 reader to refer back to pp. 23 and 34 to see what the number 

 means, implies that it has not been adopted, or probably pro- 

 posed. The idea simply is to abbreviate the name of the insect 

 as much as possible, often to an initial, and to place the two 

 names thus abbreviated together, the male always first. Thus, 

 if dealing with Saturnias, as on Dr. Standfuss's p. 23, his most 

 complicated cross, No. 18, which he writes : — 



^/"pavoniacf \ \ 



\ iiHvnnifl. 9 ' 



^, , V pavonia $ 



y /pavoniacT \ \ 

 ( V spini j ' \ 

 ^ pavonia ? / $ 



would be written Sat. Pa S. Pa Pa— Pa S. Pa Pa, or simply 

 Sat. Pa S Pa Pa Pa S Pa Pa. A hybrid being always designated 

 by its 2, 4, 8, 16, or more parents. This one is a little com- 

 plicated by having to write Pa, to distinguish pavonia from pij7i. 

 Similarly Dr. Standfuss's No. 30 — 



/■/ ourtula J 



// curtnia d \ \ 

 I Vaiiachoreta<f / ] ^ 



p '■ anachoreta j 



anachoreta ? 



would be written Pygsera C.A-A.A — A.A-A.A. If P. anastomosis 

 comes into the experiment, then Ac must be used for anachoreta, 

 and As for anastomosis. 



tNTOM. — JULY, 1901. y 



