508 PROF. J. O. WESTWOOD ON THE URANIID&. 
terized, with P. leilus and P. patroclus mentioned as two of the seven species of which 
it was stated to be composed, the names of the other five species not being given. 
The name Urania proposed by Fabricius for this new genus had unfortunately been, 
then recently, applied by Schreber to a genus of plants of the natural order Musacee, 
from Madagascar, to which Adanson, Sonnerat, and Jussieu had previously given the 
name of Ravenala, which the tree also bears in Madagascar. It is true that the name 
Urania is still “ unjustifiably”’* retained for the tree in botanical works; but surely it 
ought to give way to Ravenala, in which case Urania would be free for use in ento- 
mology’. It moreover does not appear to me objectionable to employ a generic name 
for a group of objects in one kingdom of nature which has already been, and is even still 
in use in a different kingdom. I should therefore not hesitate on both these grounds 
to retain the generic name of Urania in entomology, and to consider the first species 
named by Fabricius (P. /ei/us) as its type, that particular species being a good repre- 
sentative of the group of new species which have subsequently been described as most 
closely allied to P. leilus. In like manner, as P. Jei/us and the other new species allied 
to it are good representatives of the whole group, I did not hesitate in my new edition 
of Drury’s work on Exotic Insects, nor do I now, to consider Urania as the type of the 
family to which to which I applied and still retain the name of Uraniide, it having in 
more recent times been deemed advisable to split up the genus Urania into smaller 
genera. 
In 1816, Hiibner, evidently profiting by the publication of the Fabrician system in 
Illiger’s Magazine, retained the previously mentioned species in a single subdivision of 
his great phalanx Geometre, forming them into the first family Heroice of his 4th 
geometrideous stirps, Lares, and subdividing them as follows in his ‘ Verzeichniss,’ 
pp. 289, 290:— 
Coitus 1. Larunpw: LARUNDA, Orithearia (Orithea, Cram. 262. C, D). 
Coitus 2. Lyssa: LYSSA, Achillaria (Patroclus, Cram. 198. A), and Patroclaria (Patroclus, 
Linn., Cram. 109. A, B). 
Coitus 3. Auciprs: ALCIDIS, Orontiaria (Orontes, Linn., Cram. 83. A, B). 
Coitus 4, Curystrin1z: CHRYSIRIDIA, Riphearia (Ripheus, Cram. 385. A, B). 
Coitus 5, Urania: URANIA, Sloanaria (Sloanus, Cram. 85. E, F); U. leilaria (Leilus, Linn., 
Cram. 85. C, D). 
Coitus 6. Mania; MANIA, Empedoclaria (Empedocles, Cram. 199. A, B); M. candilunaria 
(Lunus, Linn., Cram. 200. A) ; M. lunigeraria (Lunus, Cram. 200. B,C). 
These six subdivisions form so many genera which it is desirable still to retain. 
‘ To use the phrase of Loudon, Encycl. of Plants, p. 245. 
* M. Boisduval (Nouv. Ann, du Mus. ii. p. 260) perceived the inconvenience of the same name being em- 
ployed in entomology and botany, but considered that the long usage of the name Urania in entomology out- 
weighed such inconvenience, ‘ Si le nom de ce genre n’étoit adopté depuis long-temps par la plupart des 
entomologistes, il seroit convenable de le changer parce qu’il existe déja un genre des plantes appelé Urania.” 
