GENERIC NAMES OF BUTTERFLIES 49 



APANTHESIS Scudder, 1889, Ann. Rep. U.S. geol. Survey 8 (1) : 459. Type-species by mono- 

 typy : Apanthesis leuce Scudder, 1889, ibid. 8 (1) : 459, pi. 52, figs 12, 13. 



1 Ins is a fossil genus based upon material obtained from the Tertiary deposits of Florissant. 



APATURA Fabricius, 1X07, Mag. f. Insektenk. (Illiger) 6 : 280. Type-species by selection by 



Curtis (1831, Brit. Entom. 8 : pi. 338) : Papilio iris Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat. (ed. 10) 1 : 476. 



Except for a short time when an attempt was made by some lepidopterists to secure 

 acceptance for the generic nanus introduced by Hubner in the pamphlet entitled the " Ten- 

 tamen " distributed in 1806, the name Apatura Fabricius has been in continuous use ever 

 since it was first published over 150 years ago. In fact, however, this name as used by 

 Fabricius was a junior objective synonym of Putamis Hubner, [1806], and a junior homonym 

 of Apatura L Illiger], 1807. The first of these defects was made good when the Commission 

 by the Ruling given in its Opinion 97 rejected the " Tentamcu ", in which the name Potamis 

 Hubner, (1806], was published, thereby depriving that name of the status of availability. 

 The second difficulty was overcome by the action of the Commission in suppressing the name 

 Apatura [Illiger!, 1807, for the purposes both of the Law of Priority and of the Law of 1 fomo- 

 nymy. Details of the action described above are given in the notes on Potamis Hubner and 

 Apatura [Illiger] respectively. 



At the time when the second of the above decisions was taken the ( ommission by its Ruling 

 given in Opum/u 232 (1954, "/"«■ '«/• Comm. tool. Nom. 4 : 249-274) placed the name 

 Apatura Fabricius, 1X07, on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology as Name No. 657. 



In order to put an end to doubts as to the interpretation of the nominal species Papilio iris 

 Linnaeus, 1758, the Commission, ai ring under its Plenary Powers, designated a lectotype for 

 that species by the Ruling given in its Opinion 264 (1954, Opin. int. Comm. zool. Nom. 

 5 : 343-354). The lectotype so selected was the male specimen illustrated as fig. 1 on plate 

 29 of R. South's work The Butterflies of tin- British Isles, published m 1906 : at the same time 

 the Commission designated " England " ( = " Anglia " of Linnaeus, 1758) as the restricted 

 locality for the nominate subspecies of this species. A note of these decisions was added to 

 the entry (.is Name 48) of the specific name iris Linnaeus on the Official List of Specific Names 

 in Zoology. 

 APATURA [Illiger], 19th Dec. 1S07, Allgem. Lit. Ztg, Halle Jena' 1H07 (No. 2) : 1181. Type- 

 species by monotypy : Papilio amphinome Linnaeus, 1767, Syst. Nat. (ed. 12) 1 (2) : 779. 



This generic name was published in an anonymously published paper in which Illiger 

 reviewed the first 34 plates then published in volume I of 1 liibners Sammlung rxot. Sclim. and 

 in certain cases gave new generic names to the species figured on those plates. In the present 

 case he introduced the name Apatura only for the species figured on Hubner's plate [47], thus 

 establishing a new monobasic genus for that species. A full description of Illiger's paper by 

 myself was published 111 1039 (Proc. R. ent. Soc. Lond. (B) 8 : 181-191), the purpose of that 

 paper being to set out the nomenclatorial problems involved as a preliminary to the submis- 

 sion of the case to the Commission for action under its Plenary Powers. 



In the present case Illiger's paper had two nomenclatorial effects, both arising from the fact 

 that Illiger's new names were the same as those introduced by Fabricius in 1807 in his paper 

 in volume 6 ol Illiger's Mag. f. Insektenk, and have precedence over the Fabrician names, 

 having been published on 19th December 1807, as contrasted with the Fabrician which, 

 having been published on some unknown date in 1807, rank for priority as from 31st December 

 of that year. The first effect of Illiger's action in the present case, if accepted, would have 

 been the transfer of the name Apatura to the genus Hamadryas Hubner, [1806], the two 

 genera having the same species as type-species. Taken by itself, no harm would have resulted 

 from this transfer, since the name Hamadryas Hubner, [1806], has priority over Apatura 

 [Illiger], with the result that the name Apatura would have disappeared in the synonymy of 

 the name Hamadryas. No disturbance would have been caused by this, but very great 

 disturbance and confusion would have resulted if the nominal species Papilio iris Linnaeus 

 and its allies had been deprived of the name Apatura Fabricius which they had borne with 

 scarcely a break since the year 1807. 



