274 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, ’12 
exaggerated. It is, in my judgment, of fundamental importance as soon 
as possible to have these disputed questions settled authoritatively for 
all time, and the creation of the Commissions already alluded to, in my 
opinion, is a step in advance, which has been taken none too soon. We 
are providing in these Commissions a court of last appeal, and their 
decisions should be accepted and adopted universally. No class of bio- 
logical students is confronted with a huger and more entangled nomen- 
clature than are students of entomology. As we all know, there are 
more living forms belonging to the class Jnsecta than belong to all the 
other classes in the animal kingdom combined. Thousands of new gen- 
eric names have been created within the last decade for Insecta. The 
nomenclature is increasing so rapidly and so large a number of students 
are engaged in investigating the nomenclature of the past that it is no 
wonder that men who have not access to large libraries and all the exist- 
ing apparatus for determining disputed questions are at times somewhat 
bewildered. I trust that a conscientious resolve will be formed by all 
working entomologists to refer questions in doubt to the nomenclatorial 
Commission of the Entomological Congress, that having been passed up- 
on by this body their decisions may be submitted to the decision of the 
Commission of the Zoological Congress, and that thus ultimately there 
may emerge, as the result of their combined efforts, an entomological 
nomenclature which will be accepted universally as final and therefore 
stable. In this work the law of strict priority will have to dominate, 
though as I have already intimated, there may be some possible excep- 
tions in the application of this rule to be left for final adjudication upon 
well-established principles by the members of this Commission. 
In this connection it may be said that it is eminently desirable that 
there should be some concerted effort made to establish a recognized 
series of rules or principles governing the matter of founding genera. 
Our camps are divided into two groups, as we all know, the “Splitters” 
and the “Lumpers.” Both have their faults and their virtues. For my 
part, I have the feeling, which has been growing, that the “Splitters” 
have been entirely too active of late, and the results of their diacritical 
investigations have had entirely too much respect accorded them. The 
establishment of a new genus upon the basis of a slight modification 
in the neuration of a wing, the presence or absence of a tubercle on 
the epidermis of a larva at a given place, is something with which I 
confess I have no sympathy. This is, however, aside from the main 
question. 
Let us by all means have a stable nomenclature. In my judgment, 
however, the only way to rightfully attain this end is by respecting 
the law of strict priority save in a very small and limited number 
of cases, which should be very carefully considered and acted upon.— 
W. J. HoLianp. 
