94 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. XI 



Latin form and used as nouns to be modified by the species names 

 used as Latin adjectives. Not infrequently, however, species 

 names are derived directly from the Greek, as micro ptera, short- 

 winged, instead of parvipennis, erythrurus, red-tailed, in place of 

 rufocaudatus, xanthopoda, yellow-legged, in place of flavipes, etc., 

 and sometimes, now not considered in good form, the names of 

 species are merely euphonious combinations of letters. The Eng- 

 lish entomologist, Francis Walker, was especially prone to use 

 words of no meaning but of pleasing sound, both for his genera 

 and species, such as Syndyas, Andxo, Edeta, Amytis, Daria. 

 Such species terms are generally construed as neo-Latm proper 

 nouns in apposition with the substantive generic name, by which 

 construction they are ascribed an adjectival function. Ordinal 

 and family names are in form Greek plurals. Thus we mention 

 one Orthopteron, two Orthoptera; one Muscid fly but several 

 Muscidse. However, as cited in binomial nomenclature, all insect 

 names, irrespective of origin, are considered as Latin and are gov- 

 erned by the rules of Latin pronunciation, which are fewer, 

 simpler and more definite than the rules for English pronunciation. 

 There are three methods in vogue for the pronunciation of 

 Latin, the Roman, the English and the Continental methods. The 

 first of these is at least an approximation to the ancient pronun- 

 ciation of the language and although taught in many if not most 

 of our schools is almost never used in biological pronunciation. 

 By this method, with its broad vowels and hard consonants, we 

 would say Cieindela, €ieindelidce, Chcetdpsis, Geotrupes, CE can- 

 thus* The Continental method retains the Roman pronunciation 

 of the vowels and diphthongs but gives the consonants as they are 

 used in English, thus : (^igindela, Cigindelidce, ChcBtopsis, Geo- 

 triipes, CEcdnthus. This method likewise is not in vogue in this 

 country for biological pronunciation. As scientific names in the 

 dififerent countries usually follow the pronounciation of the lan- 

 guage of the region, in America the English method of speaking 

 Latin has naturally been applied. Accordingly the genera pre- 

 viously cited sound more familiar when called Cieindela, Chcetop- 

 sis, Geotrupes and CEcdnthus. 



* Pronounced as if spelled with the English letters Ke-kin-da-ld, 

 Ke-kln-da-le-di, Ki-top-ces, Gd-o-tru-pas, Oi-cdn-thoos. 



