ENTOMOLOGICAL N EWS. 



Philadelphia, Pa., January, 1916. 



Remarks on Labelling. 



The labeling of type specimens of new taxonomic forms, 

 species, subspecies and varieties has become a recognized prac- 

 tice among all good students of entomology. It is not too 

 much to say that this is obligatory, whether the types be pin- 

 ned or be mounted as a microscopic slide. 



It is probably much less common to mark material which, 

 without being typical of new taxonomic forms, is the basis of 

 published figures illustrating either whole structures or details 

 of anatomy. Yet this also is very important and highly de- 

 sirable, as it will enable a later investigator, examining that 

 material, to explain, in many cases, why two writers on the 

 same subject have reached divergent conclusions. The con- 

 verse of this practice is also desirable, viz. : that the legends or 

 explanations accompanying such published figures should in- 

 dicate the exact place in a given lot of material from which 

 the illustration has been made. For example, in connection 

 with a drawing based on one section of a microtome series, it 

 should be stated on which slide, in which row on the slide, 

 and in what position (number) in that row that section is to 

 be found. No honest and candid worker need have any fear 

 of subjecting the evidence for his conclusions to the exam- 

 ination of his colaborers, contemporary or of later date. 



One of the many good offices rendered by the late Profes- 

 sor John B. Smith to entomolog\' was to mount in balsam the 

 preparations of the mouth-parts illustrated on plates V to X 

 accompanying Dr. George H. Horn's memoir "On the Genera 

 of Carabidae." Horn had left these upon pinned cards labeled 

 with the generic name. Smith transferred them to standard 

 microscopic slides, each one of which is labeled in this style: 

 "Carabus, PI. V, f. 13, Coll. G. H. Horn." As long as these 

 slides (now at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- 

 phia) are in existence, it will always be possible for the stu- 

 dent of the ground beetles to comprehend Horn's results. It 

 is to be hoped that all entomologists will follow the example 

 set by the recent State Entomologist of New Jersey. 



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