THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY, 



APRIL, 1837. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. On Generic Nomenclature. By J. O. Westwood, Esq., 



F.L.S., &c. 



As the propriety of the adoption of any theory is necessarily 

 rendered most evident by pointing out the practical ill effects 

 arising from its non-adoption, or the good effects which are 

 to be produced by its being received, I beg leave to offer a 

 few remarks in this paper upon the great disadvantages which 

 have arisen, and still arise, from the want of a fixed principle 

 in regulating the assumption of an old generic name for some 

 one or other of the types into which the researches of recent 

 naturalists have rendered it necessary to cut up many old 

 and extensive genera. With this view, I purpose, first, to 

 give a short catalogue of some of the most striking and best 

 known of the insect tribes, all of which, owing to the non- 

 adoption of a fixed principle regulating generic nomenclature, 

 are, at the present time, systematically distinguished by two 

 or three different generic names. 



1. The giant beetles, Hercules, Actae^on, &c, with which 

 Linnaeus commences the insect tribes, are named Scarabaa v us 

 in France, Geotrupes in Germany, Dynastes in England, 

 exclusive of the subgeneric names Megasoma, &c, of Mr. 

 Kirby, proposed for some of them. 



2. The sacred beetle of the Egyptians is Scarabae'us, or 

 Heliocantharus, in England, Ateuchus in France and Ger- 

 many. 



3. The blister fly is Cantharis in England and France, 

 Lytta in Germany. 



4. The soldier beetles are Telephori in England and 

 France, and Cantharides in Germany and Sweden. 



5. The locust is Locusta in England, Aciydium in France, 

 and Gryllus in Germany. 



Vol. I. — No. 4. n. s. o 



