Insects. 2549 



names in particular groups of Lepidoptera, being contrary to the general practice of 

 nomenclature in all other branches of Natural History, and having been found the 

 parent of complexity, should not be persisted in. — Signed at Mountsfield, August 10th, 

 1849; /. F. Stephens, J. W. Douglas, H. T. Stainton, J. Jenner Weir, Geo. Bedell, 

 W. J. Wild, William Wihg y W. Thomson, jun., S. J. Wilkinson. 



[I recollect some time ago a committee of the " British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science" undertook to make laws on the same subject: after much 

 labour, the only novelty they introduced was to begin proper names, when applied to 

 species, with a small letter, thus — jupiter, juno, yarrell, swainson : the idea was not 

 only novel, but profound, yet no one obeyed the law ; and I believe my estimable 

 friends, Wild, Wing, Wilkinson, and their coadjutors, will find that the novelties in 

 their laws will share the same fate. In both codes there are good points, but none of 

 these have the charm of novelty, neither do they require re-enactment. — E. Newman] 



Catalogue of Tineidce.* 



[Although I am not disposed to value this little brochure as a complete or standard 

 work, and although I totally disapprove of the want of uniformity in the termination 

 of the names of divisions, — as Crambma, Tineacra, Pterophorw/«, — yet it is but fair 

 to mention that the author himself is perfectly aware of its incompleteness, as ap- 

 pears by his modest introduction, and that the discrepancy of the termination is pro- 

 bably designed, and is in strict accordance with the new " laws of nomenclature " 

 published above. I hope all Lepidopterists will obtain the work, which, if not so 

 perfect as it might be, will still be found useful. The author's design in its publica- 

 tion will appear from the following extract from his introduction. — E. Newman.'] 



" It appeared to me that whilst the different groups of Tineidae were undergoing 

 the searching revision requisite for a series of monographs, our collections would all 

 be thrown into extreme confusion, from the fact of the extremely artificial nature of 

 our present arrangement, in which cognate species are placed at a distance from each 

 other, and several veiy heterogeneous species are placed together ; and at the same 

 time, owing to the vagueness of the descriptions of many species in Mr. Stephens' 

 work, and generally the total omission there of the distinguishing characters of allied 

 species, it had become no easy matter to get two entomologists to agree about the 

 names of many of our species, — so that the exchange of marked lists of Tineidae had 

 become of little use, as each entomologist put a different interpretation on many of 

 the species ; by which it frequently happened that each of two correspondents would 

 neglect to collect some species which the other wanted, — each applying the same 

 name to a different species, and neither for a moment imagining that the species he 

 collected was unknown to the other. In order to obviate these difficulties I have 



* ' An Attempt at a Systematic Catalogue of the British Tineidae and Pteropho- 

 ridae. By H. T. Stainton.' London : Van Voorst. 1849. 



vii 2f 



