Vol. XXviii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 285 



formal limit of length has been imposed on contributors, but short ar- 

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 bar to publication. 



While the function of the journal will be primarily to promote the 

 speedy publication of research, discussions of important points may be 

 admitted at the discretion of the editors, such discussions being limited 

 in any case to two pages. 



Books will not be reviewed but brief notices may be given of books 

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Manuscript submitted for publication should be addressed to Pro- 

 fessor Knight Dunlap, The Johns Hopkins University, Homewood, 

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 Editors : John J. Abel, Johns Hopkins Medical School ; Walter B. Can- 

 non, Harvard Medical School; Raymond Dodge, Wesleyan University; 

 Shepherd I. Eranz, Government Hospital for the Insane; Herbert S. 

 Jennings, Johns Hopkins University, and George H. Parker, Harvard 

 University. — Knight Dunlap. 



The Generic Bugbear. 



Those who refrain from subdividing large genera, on the ground that 

 they are facilitating the remembrance of names, are likely to exaggerate 

 the importance of their services. Such persons do not convince me of 

 anything, except that they have never really learned enough names to 

 be able to tell whether many generic names hinder or help. A man can 

 write a monograph containing one hundred species to the genus with- 

 out being able to name all of the species ofifhand and without being a 

 judge as regards the easy remembrance of names. 



The idea that few generic names facilitate remembering is not a 

 fact, and, even if it were true, would be worthless in practical applica- 

 tion. You can remember one generic name better than a dozen, but 

 you can not remember one hundred names in one genus as easily as 

 you can one hundred names in a dozen genera. A biologist who is 

 working with a number of species where he has to identify and write 

 the names frequently can remember them more easily than the names 

 of persons. The generic name does not increase the difficulty of re- 

 membering the name of a species any more than the surnam.e increases 

 the difficulty in remembering the name of a man. li every one hun- 

 dred of your acquaintances had the same surname, do you think you 

 could remember their names more easily? 



Suppose you start out to familiarize yourself with the flowers of 

 your neighborhood and their insect visitors. H it is like the neighbor- 

 hood of Carlinville, you will have to learn a generic name for every 1.7 

 species. Or suppose you undertake to write offhand the names of the 



