THE ZooLocist—JANuARY, 1872. 2895 
utterly unworthy the expenditure of time or thought. In order to 
show the amount of change involved by adopting Mr. Kirby’s rules 
in our British butterflies alone, I subjoin a list of those British 
species in which his nomenclature differs from my own. 
Kirby. Newman. 
Melitea Aurinia == Melitzea Artemis 
»  Leucippe mic »  Athalia 
Mycalesis Medea == EKrebia Medea 
Epinephile Jurtina = Epinephile Janira 
Ccenonympha Typhon = Ccenonympha Davyus 
Lyczena dispar = Polyommatus Hippothoé 
Cupido Argus == Lycena Aigon 
» Alexis = E Medon 
», Artaxerxes = " Medon, var. 
y- Lhetis = - Adonis 
»  Semiargus a is Acis 
Colias Croceus = Colias Edusa 
Hesperilla Paleemon as Hesperia Paniscus 
Thymelicus Thaumas = bs Linea 
2 Actseon = s Acton 
My readers will see that more than one-fifth of the names in the 
most recent descriptive list of butterflies have been utterly changed 
by Mr. Kirby: if we apply the test to any other list of British 
butterflies, the proportion will be larger. Now supposing Mr. Kirby 
has applied the same principle of name-selection to the 7695 species 
in his Catalogue, there will be no less than 1539 names changed. 
I will not emphasise this assertion by italics or notes of admiration, 
but leave it in its naked simplicity. After all I do not think Mr. 
Kirby has applied his rules or those of the British Association 
rigidly or impartially: he will find on a reference to his own work, 
p. 203, it is stated, and truthfully, that the name of Papilio Medea 
was given by Fabricius, in 1775, to a very different insect to that 
which he has applied it: this Medea, according to his own law, 
should have been called thiops, which name he has transferred 
to another species named by Mr. Butler in 1868; both must come 
into the genus or subgenus Erebia, Mycalesis of Hiibner being a 
mere myth. He alters the name of Agon, dating 1775, to Argus, 
which was applied by Linneus to the following speeies: Argy- 
rotaxus of Bergstraser, 1779, should have been the name, if any 
