330 Mr, G. R. Waterhouse upon the Nomendature 



apply to no other species, — at least, known to Erichson. The 

 insect is liomalota occulta {$) Erichson. The insect which 

 stands as ^'foveata' in Stephens' collection is Homalota gregaria, 

 and of course does not agree with his description. But I trace 

 that description back to Kirby (I have in fact the original Kirbian 

 MSS. in my hands) j I refer then to Kirby's collection, and there I 

 find the insect ticketed and named '■^ foveata." At two distant 

 periods I examine it most carefully, and with the same result — it 

 is the same as the Horn, occulta, Erichson. This will serve to 

 show in what way I have availed myself of the help of the so- 

 called type specimens. But Stephens' description has this defect — 

 it is put in the wrong place : in Stephens' " Manual" it is inserted in 

 the genus Ischnopoda, a genus which has for one of its characters 

 " all the tarsi 5-jointed," whilst "■ foveata" being a Homalota^ has 

 but four joints to the anterior tarsi. Now let Dr. Schaum look 

 to my Catalogue (p. 18, sp. 21), and he will there see that Ischno- 

 fodafoveata of Stephens is sunk into a synonym, Erichson's more 

 recent name taking precedence. Seeing that in similar cases the 

 rule adopted is a more lenient one,* — seeing that the species with 

 the author's name attached is regarded as a symbol of a certain 

 amount of work done by him, and serving, more or less, to 

 advance the branch of natural history to which he had devoted 

 himself; and that under these circumstances, other naturalists 

 generally appear to be very loath to obliterate that symbol — t 

 say, being aware of this, 1 think I did wrong in not putting the 

 earlier name first. But as a mere matter of fact I did not do so, 

 and from this it will appear that I was under the influence of a 

 certain amount of bias in favour of that great Entomologist, the 

 author of the " Genera et Sjjecies Staphylinorum ;^' and to this I 

 must plead guilty. 



I will now come to the main point of the paper, so far as facts 

 are concerned, and I must quote Dr. Schaum's statement in full 

 to avoid misunderstanding on this part of the subject. The paper 

 then states that " Mr. Waterhouse changes the name of the genus 

 Chilopora, Kraatz, (group of Aleocharce), which Kraatz had esta- 

 blished on Calodera longitarsis, and rubicunda, Er., and had well 

 defined, into that of Ischnopoda, Steph. On referring to Stephens' 

 work I find Ischnopoda characterized in these words, — " Head 

 nearly sessile, thorax longer than broad, elytra wide, body slender, 

 abdomen acute at tip, legs slender, tarsi, especially the hinder, 



* Several of the species described by Erichson in the genus Oxypoda have, 

 according to Dr. Kraatz, but four joints to the anterior tarsi, although by tlie 

 generic characters laid down for Oxyiioda they should have five. 



