On Generic Nomenclature. 249 



IX. p. 561. of the former series, he takes occasion to cavil at 

 tny reprehension of his inaccuracy in the latter paper, in the 

 observations I made upon the genus Pemphredon, contained 

 in my Essay on the Fossorial Hymenoptera. He says I take a 

 partial view of the case, and that I charge him with inaccura- 

 cies which I omit to point out. This would be very invidious 

 conduct, could they nqt be pointed out ; and would imply a 

 wish on my part to undermine, insidiously, a fair scientific 

 reputation. Those who know me will, I feel convinced, fully 

 acquit me of this charge ; but, as the paper may be read by 

 many who do not know me, I owe it to myself to reply, and 

 to show that I have asserted nothing more than the truth, 

 nothing less than the truth, and only the truth. To prove 

 this, as my work may not be in the hands of your readers, 

 I will just repeat what I did say. 



"Pemphredon. — This genus was established by La- 

 treille, in his ' Precis, without naming any type; but it may 

 be presumed to have been a male of a species of the present 

 genus Diodontus, from his description of the mandibles. In 

 his next work, the ' Histoire,' vol. xiii. p. 325., in naming the 

 genus Pemphredon, he does not describe the mandibles, but 

 refers to the Crabro lugubris Fab., Sphex unicolor Panz., as 

 the 'best determined species of this genus.' In his ' Genera' 

 (which ought to be considered his final view, for, in his last 

 work, the ' Regne Animal' of Cuvier, vols. iv. and v., he con- 

 stantly refers to it), he describes the genus Pemphredon as 

 having spoon-shaped and quadridentate mandibles, and ad- 

 duces the P. lugubris of his ' Histoire ' as the type ; and refers 

 the P. minulus (which he there, for the first time, states to 

 have been the original type of his genus Pemphredon in the 

 ' Precis') to the genus Stigmus of Jurine, and makes it the 

 first section of this genus. In the ' Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat,,' 

 t. xv. p. 151., 1817, he further confirms this, by stating that 

 the mandibles of Pemphredon 'are stronger (in comparison 

 with Stigmus), and dentate all along their inner edge.' Thus, 

 therefore, although the original type of this genus was the 

 Pemphredon (Diodontus) minutus F., yet, as Latreille subse- 

 quently changed his views, I necessarily follow the course he 

 has adopted, and consider the Crabro lugubris F. as the true 

 type of the genus Pemphredon. I have given this history of 

 the genus in consequence of Mr. Westwood having, by a 

 string of inaccuracies, in a recent periodical (Loudon's Mag. 

 Nat. Hist., No. 67. vol. ix. p. 565.), introduced confusion 

 where the course was exceedingly clear, and this is the more 

 unfortunate, as they are produced as an example in a paper 

 on nomenclature, where the strictest correctness was requisite, 



