Mr. G. Newport on a new genus of Parasitic Insects. 51/ 



would this entitle him to claim priority of nomenclature while the 

 chief characters I have given (the stemmatous eyes, and the great 

 dilatation and excavation of the basilar and the enlargement of 

 the middle joints of the antennae in the male) remain for the 

 identification of the insect ? As well might I pretend that the 

 discovery of external branchiae, in the imago PteronarcySy which 

 had been overlooked, entitles me to sink Mr. Newman's name of 

 that genus, and substitute one of my own. 



The great object of nomenclature and structural description of 

 external form, if I rightly apprehend, is identification. Now it 

 happens that Mr. Westwood's name is attached in assent to a 

 printed Report on Zoological Nomenclature adopted and pub- 

 lished by a Committee of the British Association in 1842, and in 

 which the following rules are announced : — " No person can sub- 

 sequently claim an authority equal to that possessed by the person 

 who is the first to define a new genus or describe a new species.'^ 

 "Unless a species or group is intelligibly defined when the 

 name is given, it cannot be recognised by others, and the signi- 

 fication of the name is consequently lost. Two things are 

 necessary before a zoological term can acquire any authority, 

 viz. definition and publication. Definition properly implies a 

 distinct exposition of essential characters, and in all cases we 

 conceive this to be indispensable, &c.'' " To constitute publi- 

 cation, nothing short of the insertion of the above particulars in 

 a printed book can be held sufficient.^' 1 have now but to ask 

 whether Mr. Westwood has complied with the rules which he 

 has thus assisted to establish, before attempting to supersede 

 others ; or whether he has not been one of the readiest to infringe 

 them, as in the present instance, when they have not suited his 

 convenience ? It matters but little to me whether the name which 

 I have given, or the one which he proposes for an insect, be ulti- 

 mately adopted, as I can assure him that 1 have but little ambi- 

 tion to be regarded as a describer of species. 



But 1 resist his encroachment on the principle of right, and I 

 repudiate his unfounded assertions and assumptions as being 

 equally derogatory to science and unfair to myself and others. 



I am content to travel over what he may regard as humbler 

 ground, to watch and experiment on function, and quietly en- 

 deavour to trace the connexion of this with anatomy, and to 

 examine and compare internal as well as external organization, 

 without aspiring to what the entomologist may look upon as an 

 all-important consideration, the honour and dignity attached to 

 the rare achievement of being the earliest to name and describe 

 an insect, — an event equivalent in his mind, pel-haps, to the dis- 

 covery of a planet and the calculation of its orbit. 



1 remain. Gentlemen, yours very truly, 



George Newport. 



