LINNEAN TYPES OF PAL^^IAECTIC KHOPALOCERA. 175' 



If one goes over the earlier literature concerning the name podalirhis, we 

 find that it figures amongst the very first created by Linnsens, but un- 

 fortunately in a very unsatisfactory way : it is only mentioned in' a short 

 footnote on p. 463 of the X. edit, of ' Systema Naturse ' ; no description 

 accompanies it, but only the following quotations : Ray, Historia Insectorum, 

 p. 111. n. 3 (1710) ; Reaumur, Hist, des Insectes, i. pi. 12. figs. 3, 4(1734); 

 Rosel, Collect, of Insects, i. classe ii. pi. 2 (174G). Linnaeus then give& 

 Southern Europe as habitat, and adds that this butterfly is so similar to his 

 American jyrotesilaus that a thorough acquaintance with their early stages 

 will alone prove whether they are to be considered specifically distinct. 



Evidently Linna?us was not personally acquainted with this insect in 1758.. 

 When Brander's African specimens reached Sweden the author of ' Systema 

 Naturee^ cancelled with a few pen-strokes on his own copy of the book the 

 footnote referring to podaliimis, and in 1764 published a lengthy description 

 of the African species he had in hand, under the same name of podalirius. 



If it be borne in mind that the three authors quoted by him figure or 

 describe the species which is more widely distributed in Europe, as is- 

 ascertainable by referring to their works, it comes to be clear that Linnseus 

 applied a single name to two insects which the most recent observations have 

 proved to be specifically distinct *. 



We are thus confronted with the question, for which of the two ought the- 

 name to be used ? and it seems to me that the most satisfactory plan is to- 

 consider, as its own author did, the first mention of the name in 1758 as null: 

 the lack of any description, and the imperfect and incorrect statements 

 accompanying it proving that Linnaeus did not know the insect he was- 

 mentioning, would, according to my views, be quite sufficient ; furthermore, 

 the original description of 1764 is given full valae by the documentary 

 evidence of one of the very specimens from which it was drawn. 



If this were not enough, one might also add that before Linnaeus's 

 description was published the European species had already been carefully 

 described and figured by the first author who took up the new nomenclature,, 

 Nicolaus Poda. In his ' Insecta Musa3i Grgecensis ' (1761) he gave such a 

 good figure of a female of the summer brood that it can be readily identified,, 

 and, never suspecting it was the insect mentioned by his master in the 

 aforesaid footnote, he gave it the name of P. sinon. 



This name I propose to validate as specific. If it be accepted, several 

 alterations will be found necessary amongst the names of the different races 

 and broods. The summer brood becoming nimotypical, the spring brood 

 will have to receive a name instead : Jiammceus of Fourci'oy, Entom. Paris, 



* See R. Veritj', ' liliopalocera PulEearctica,' p. 293. I emphasize the fact that P. sinon 

 and podalirius ( = feisthameh) Dup.) both fly together in Spain and Portugal and even. 

 down to Tangier in Marocco. 



