THE TYPE-SPECIES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN GENERA 

 OF DIPTERA. 



By D. W. Coquillett, 



Custodian of Diptera, U. S. Notional Museum. 



The great importance of knowing definitely what species is the type 

 of any given genus is now recognized by practically every worker 

 in the field of biology. For several years past the writer has been 

 engaged in ascertaining the types of the genera of Diptera reported 

 as occurring in North and Middle America, and the present paper 

 gives the results of these labors. The rules adopted by the Interna- 

 tional Zoological Congress, as amended at the 1907 (Boston) meeting 

 and the later decisions, published in Science for October 29, 1909, 

 have been followed in all cases. 



The following rules or articles more especially concern us in the 

 present work: 



Article 2. "The scientific designation of animals is uninominal for 

 subgenera and all higher groups." A genus or subgenus, to which 

 no species was originally referred by name, dates from its earliest 

 published description or figure. 



Article 3 specifies that the scientific names of animals must be in 

 Latin or, at least, must be latinized. This excludes certain works 

 where only French or other vernacular names are employed, such as 

 Dumeril's Exposition d'une Methode Naturelle, published in 1801; 

 his Considerations Generates, 1823; Schinz's Das Thierreich, 1823, 

 and Latreille's Families Naturelles du Regne Animal, 1825. 



Article 19. "The original orthography of a name is to be preserved 

 unless an error of transcription, a lapsus calami, or a typographical 

 error is evident." The so-called emended names are to be regarded 

 only as misspelled names, and as such have no permanent place in 

 the nomenclature. 



Article 25. The well known law of priority. This article holds, 

 among other things, that a new generic name unaccompanied by either 

 a description or a figure is valid if the name of one or more described 

 species is mentioned as pertaining to it. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 37— No. 1719. 



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