SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 55 



the "Butterflies of N.W. Persia," by Mr. P. A. Buxton, the latter 

 remarks under the heading Polyommatus icarus, page 82, as follows : — 



" The race generally known as persica, Bienert, is that of the 

 Persian plateau ; Tutt has shown that Bienert's name persica can only 

 apply to a rare aberration, which is of no geographical significance, 

 and it appears that the plateau race referred to as persica, Bien., by 

 many authors, from Butler to Le Cerf, should be called fugitiva, 

 Butler." 



To amateur entomologists, -whose spare time is not sufficient to 

 allow them to investigate the history and system of the nomenclature 

 of Lepidoptera, an article in an early forthcoming number of Ent. 

 Rec, dealing broadly with the general conditions under which the 

 existing system of the nomenclature of Lepidoptera has grown up 

 would certainly be of great interest and assistance. 



Taking, for the sake of example, the above case of Polyommatus 

 icarus, the line of thought that presents itself to the writer as one of 

 the aforesaid class of amateurs, is somewhat as follows : — 



Presumably the name persica was first given by Bienert to that 

 particular race* or form of icarus which most generally occurs in 

 Persia, seeing that the name itself implies an intention on the part of 

 its author that it should indicate that particular geographical area, 

 while on the other hand the name in itself most certainly does not 

 indicate any intention on the part of that author that it should be 

 applied to a mere aberration of no particular geographical significance. 



(a) What then is the exact system or authority under which it has 

 been decided that Bienert's name persica was not intended by him to 

 indicate the normal form of Polyommatus icarus as occurring in Persia, 

 but that what he really intended to indicate was the rare aberration 

 above referred to. 



(6) If he did intend it only to apply to that ab., why did he use the 

 name persica if the ab. occurs in other geographical areas than 

 Persia ? 



(c) How, or under what rule or theory of nomenclature, does the 

 name of the Persian race of icarus come to be altered to fugitiva, see- 

 ing that the original name persica seems to be so much more 

 appropriate ? 



(d) Why has the name obsoleta. been suggested for the variety or 

 aberration when the variety is still extant and obtainable ? 



(e) Are the specimens of the before mentioned variety which are 

 taken in this country emigrants from Persia, or are they aberrations 

 of the English race of Polyommatus icarus ? — R. Barnard Cruickshank, 

 Alverstoke, Hants. February 22nd, 1921. 



[If Tutt's Brit. Lep., vol. xi. {Brit. Butt., iv.) be consulted under 

 the indices persica, fugitiva, obsoleta, there will be found a very full, 

 complete, and to me satisfactory, discussion of this case. — Hy. J. T.] 



^OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Dytiscid larv-k as food in Burma. — The Deputy Commissioner 

 of Lower Chindwin Dist., Monywa, Burma, recently sent the Indian 

 Museum two large boxes containing the larvte of a Dytiscid, and a 



* [No: "this is a very distinct aberration," Bienert. The italics are mine.— 

 H.J.T.l 



