172 



THE AMEEICAN 



and cliaracter of a butterfly than there is between 

 a ship's name — the Furious, the Coquette, or 

 the Betsy-Jane — and the moral disposition or 

 appearance of the vessel that bears it." 



This, of course, is to be regretted; but so far 

 as names already bestowed are concerned, the 

 evil is irremediable. But may we not ask that 

 those entomologists who devote their energies 

 mainly to the description of genera and species 

 should, iu the future, take some little trouble to 

 seek out names which convey an accurate idea 

 of tliat which they wish to describe? and always 

 accompany it by a translation, so as to prevent 

 any possibility of misconstruction of their mean- 

 ing. There is another point of great importance. 

 In forming a new species or genus, why not 

 always give the distinctive diflerences that dis- 

 tinguish the new species or genus from its 

 nearest congener or family? Renuie, in his 

 valuable synopsis of British Lepidopteea, says : 



AcHERONTiA — Wings entire and acute, the 

 jaws short, 



Si'HiNX — "Wings entire and acute, jaws loug- 

 ish, and the antonnoe not clubbed at the tip. 



The inference here may be that Sphinx is 

 distinguished from Acherontia by its longer 

 jaws, and by not having the antenuje clubbed 

 at the tip. But we are not told which sort of 

 antenniB Acherontia has, and the learner would 

 certainly hesitate before drawing the above infer- 

 ence. "Why not say — "Difl'ers from Acherontia 

 in such and such particulars?" "What makes 

 the matter worse, in this case, is the unfortunate 

 use of the word " club," because the author has 

 just told us that one ol the distinguishing marks 

 betwixt a Butterfly and a Moth is that the former 

 has clubbed-tip antennse and the latter has not. 



While, however, making these complaints, 

 we should remember that the fault does not 

 entirely lie with the Gle^'ks of the science. Ly- 

 ing under great obligations to them, we have 

 perhaps attached too much importance to their 

 labors, while we have underrated the efforts of 

 the " mere collector." A little literary vanity 

 may be excused under such circumstances ; and 

 the show of possible erudition, which consists in 

 the use of words not comprehensible by the 

 illiterate, may at one time have been harmless 

 enough ; but now, when a continuance in such 

 a course acts as a bar to the advancement of the 

 science, it is time to protest against that con- 

 tinuance, and to insist that the language of the 

 science shall be the language of every day life, 

 so far as it is available. 



"The individual," says Dr. Knaggs, "who 

 sits in his library all the year round, up to his 

 eyes in entomological dry specimens, and drier 



literature, writing elaborate Latin diagnoses of 

 probable new species, or turning out descrip- 

 tions of improbable ones, at the rate of so many 

 per hour, is apt to imagine that his occupation 

 constitutes Entomology; and, as a consequence, 

 he too often looks down upon the poor fly- 

 catcher with something like contempt ; but for 

 all that, the despised collector often, of the two, 

 does the more for science, by which is here 

 meant the acquisition and diffasion of sound 

 knowledge, and not the art of piling up a 

 synonj'my for the bewilderment of future gene- 

 rations. The observer, on the other hand, when 

 his observations are conducted with caution and 

 carefully recorded, is the most scientific ; or in 

 other words does more than the other two put 

 together to acquire and diffuse knowledge." 



As I have already said, I have no doubt that 

 the superciliousness of the literary Entomologist 

 may have some elfect upon his language ; but if 

 he will remember that " science must be catho- 

 lic to be worthy of the name," doubtless he will, 

 henceforth, seek to obtain that catholicity by 

 writing in as plain English as he finds himself 

 possessed of. 



Tomato Fkuit-wokm. — We learn from a re- 

 cent number of Scientific Opinion, that at a late 

 meeting of the London Entomological Society, 

 Mr. Jenner Weir exhibited specimens of our 

 Cotton Boll-worm Moth (Heliothis armigera, 

 Hiibn.), which were bred from larviB which fed 

 on the fruit of the Tomato. As we have already 

 shown (American Entomologist I, pp. 21^ . 

 213), this same sjoecies attacks our corn, and V 

 does great damage to our tomatoes by eating 

 into the fruit ; and the fact of its being bred 

 from the Tomato in England, where this fruit is 

 with difficulty grown, is interesting and sug- 

 gestive. This same worm, as set forth in the 

 second number of our second volume, is now 

 known to feed also on green peas and on the 

 stems of the Gladiolus. 



Attacks of Insects Affected bv Colok. — 

 Darwin {Animals and Plants, ii. 277) states 

 that " it is certain that insects regulate in many 

 cases the range and even the existence of the 

 higher animals, whilst living under their natural 

 conditions. Under domestication light-colored 

 animals suft'er most; in Thuringia the inhabi- 

 tants do not like grey, white, or pale cattle, 

 because they are mucli more troubled by various 

 kinds of flies than the brown, red or black cattle. 

 An Albino negro, it has been remarked, was 

 particularly sensitive to the bites of insects. In 

 the West Indies it is said that 'the only horned 

 cattle fit for work are those which have a good 

 deal of black iu them. The white are terribly 

 tormented by the insects ; and they are weak 

 and sluggish in proportion to the black.' " 



