12 FRANCIS HEMMING 



nomenclatorial practice. Twenty years later a provision — Article n(d) — was 

 inserted in the revised Code of 1961, containing an express ruling that the publica- 

 tion of a name as a synonym does not confer upon it the status of availability. 



For generic names published after 1863 the principal sources were the successive 

 volumes of the Zoological Record, of which the first volume dealt with the literature 

 published in 1864 and the most recent (vol. 98) with that published in 1961. In 

 addition, a certain number of generic names which up to that time had been over- 

 looked by the editors of the Record were brought to light by the examination of 

 catalogues, check-lists and synonymic revisions of various kinds. Finally, a few 

 generic names published since 1961 and therefore not yet noted in the Record have 

 come to light through the receipt of separates from the authors concerned. 



At the outset of the preparation of the present work I decided that, insofar as this 

 was physically possible, I would myself examine the original descriptions of all the 

 generic names dealt with, in order thereby both to check the spelling of the names 

 concerned, to verify the bibliographical references involved, and to determine dates 

 of publication more closely than had in many cases been thought necessary previous- 

 ly. It is satisfactory to be able to record that the original references for the generic 

 names listed in the present work — nearly 3400 in number — have all been personally 

 inspected by myself, except two names. These are contained in works of which it has 

 proved impossible to trace a copy in this country. In these cases only was it 

 necessary to rely upon second-hand sources of information. A similar procedure 

 was adopted in the preparation of bibliographical references for the names of nominal 

 species which are the type-species of nominal genera. 



(b) Determination of cases of generic homonymy 



Until comparatively recent times, the task of determining whether a given 

 generic name had previously been employed as the name for a genus in some other 

 part of the animal kingdom was laborious and time-consuming, it being necessary 

 to consult successively such works as the " Nomenclators " compiled by Agassiz 

 (1846), Marschall (1873), Scudder (1882), and for later years the annual volumes of 

 the Zoological Record. It was therefore a great relief when in 1939-1940 there 

 appeared the four volumes of Neave's Nomenclator Zoologicus, which brought 

 together the information contained in all previous " Nomenclators " and also that 

 given in Sherborn's Index Animalium, and moreover carried the record forward 

 to the end of the year 1935 and, in the Supplement published in 1950, down to the 

 end of 1945. For the later years it is still necessary, pending the publication of the 

 next Supplement to Neave's work, to consult the successive volumes of the Zoological 

 Record. Much of the material on which the present work is based had been com- 

 piled before the publication of Neave's Nomenclator ; upon the appearance of that 

 work all the evidence so far collected was re-checked by reference to it. A similar 

 procedure was adopted on the publication (as noted above) of the supplementary 

 volume of Neave's work. 



The number of generic names in the butterflies that are invalid under the Law of 

 Homonymy is considerable, but most of those requiring replacement were found 

 already to have been replaced by the time that the survey described above was 



