NAMES OF INSECTS. 155 



the opposite extreme ■ and so, instead of making an 

 insect name an elaborate description of its appear- 

 ance} gave it a title which did not describe it at all, 

 and would have been just as applicable to any other 

 insect. Old Homer's pages afforded a valuable 

 treasury of names ; and accordingly, Greek and 

 Trojan may reasonably be astonished to find their 

 names again revived on earth. 



Even our British butterflies have appropriated 

 Homeric titles For example, the two first on the 

 list are named Machaon and Podalirius, known to 

 students of Homer as the two medical officers that 

 accompanied the Greek army. 



Numerous, however, as are the Homeric heroes 

 and heroines, the insects far outnumbered them. 

 So, after exhausting Homer, the dramatists were 

 called into requisition, and plundered of their 

 "persona?"- Fiction failing, history, or that which 

 is dignified by the name of history, was next sought •, 

 and kings, queens, generals, and statesmen lent 

 their names to swell the insect catalogue. 



The Latin authors now are required to make up 

 the deficiency, Terence being especially useful. We 

 have in our English list Davus, Pamphilus, and 

 Chrysis, all out of one play, the " Andria ". 



At . last, when Greek and Latin, prose and verse, 

 history and mythology, had been quite exhausted, 

 some enterprising and imaginative men boldly in- 

 vented new names for new insects. The import of 



