Insects. 3733 



observations ; those who have not, I would urge to take advantage of 

 the present opportunity, and to remember the advice of the poet, — 

 " Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero." 



A. Matthews. 

 Weston-on-the-Green, September, 1852. 



Reply to Mr. Doubleday's " Notes on Mr. Stephens' ' Catalogue of 

 Lepidoplerous Insects in the Cabinet of the British Museum, 

 (Tortrices).' " By J. F. Stephens, Esq., F.L.S., &c. 



In your number for September (Zool. 3580) appear some Notes on 

 my Catalogue of the Tortrices in the British Museum Collection, to 

 which I feel it an imperative though painful duty to reply ; it being 

 evident that my friend Mr. Doubleday has, from misapprehension, 

 "jumped to an erroneous conclusion" as to my object ; and has con- 

 sequently raised a series of charges against me, which having traversed 

 " the length and breadth of the land," leaves me no alternative but to 

 repel them by a thorough analysis of the points in question, which 

 necessarily leads to the introduction of matters in connexion there- 

 with, which would otherwise have been buried in oblivion. 



I am accused, in the onset, of making " an unfair attack " therein 

 upon M. Guenee's work on the Noctuae, an accusation / most empha- 

 tically and utterly deny, not only de facto, but as wholly beyond my 

 intention, as I state in the last paragraph of the Introduction, that my 

 " remarks are introduced solely with a view to point out the palpable 

 inconvenience of the proposed system," — that deprecated in the pre- 

 ceding pages thereof, — " and not from any captious spirit." I have 

 yet to learn that the quotation of examples to illustrate a subject un- 

 der consideration, is indicative of any opinion of the work quoted ; 

 and regarding Guenee's, I have expressed no other than terming it 

 " an elaborate one," which, according to my ideas, implies commen- 

 dation ; my sole object in noticing it being, as above and elsewhere 

 shown, to furnish additional proofs in regard to my views, and thus 

 further endeavour to resist the prevailing innovation on the nomencla- 

 ture by the adoption of a new rule in one department of Zoology, " at 

 the present time," (p. xi.): — for surely the only proper period to change 

 the name of an animal is, when it is found to belong to the same ge- 

 nus as another, to which the same name had been applied, and not to 

 anticipate an inconvenience, which may never arise in some groups, 



