66 FRANCIS HEMMING 



this name applies to the " Pantoporia-Group " species which is one of the two taxa to which 

 Linnaeus in 1764 applied this name. It is further agreed subjectively on taxonomic grounds 

 that the taxon represented by the nominal species Papilio leucothoe Linnaeus, 1758, is the 

 same as that taxon established on an earlier page (: 471) in the same work. The specified 

 names leucothoe and perius, both of Linnaeus, 1758, are therefore subjective synonyms of one 

 another. The relative precedence to be accorded to these names depends on the choice 

 made by the First Reviser. This was Aurivillius (1882, loc. cit. : 68) who gave preference to 

 the name perius Linnaeus over the name leucothoe Linnaeus. Thus, on the basis of the 

 subjective taxonomic view discussed above, the oldest available specific name for, and there- 

 fore the valid name of, the " Pantoporia-Group " species here in question is perius Linnaeus 

 1758. 



Up till comparatively recent times there was no official guidance to the procedure to be 

 followed in cases in which an author established a nominal genus on the basis of a misidentified 

 type-species, some authors taking as the type-species the taxon to which the specific name 

 cited by the author of the generic name properly applies, while others sought to establish the 

 identity of the species intended by the author of the generic name and, having reached a 

 conclusion on this subject, treated the species so determined as the type-species of the genus 

 concerned. Under the revised Code (Article 70) an author of a generic name is to be assumed 

 to have correctly identified the nominal species placed by him in the genus in question, save 

 where he makes it plain that he is applying a given specific name in some sense other than that 

 of the original author of the specific name in question. This latter provision does not apply in 

 the present case, as Westwood said nothing to imply that he was using the specific name 

 leucothoe in a sense different from that in which it had been originally applied by Linnaeus — 

 and, indeed, could not have done so, in view of the fact that it was not until many years later 

 that the identity of the taxa to which that specific name was applied by Linnaeus when (i) 

 when he first published it, and (ii) when he used it again in the Mus. Lud. Ulr. was definitely 

 established by Aurivillius (1882). The present therefore is a case in which it is necessary 

 to assume that Westwood correctly identified the nominal species Papilio leucothoe Linnaeus 

 when he placed it in his new genus Athyma. Thus, under the Code the type-species of Athyma 

 is the species of the " Pantoporia -Group "to which the name Papilio leucothoe is properly 

 applicable. 



When we turn to examine the interpretation of the genus A thy ma by authors subsequent to 

 Westwood, we find (a) that over a long period it was treated as having a type-species belonging 

 to the " Pantoporia-Group and was widely used in this sense, and (b) that a minority of 

 authors, including myself in 1934 (Gen. Names hoi. Butts 1 : 87) treated this genus as having a 

 species of the " Neptis-Group " as its type-species, the name Athyma being treated by these 

 latter authors as a junior subjective synonym of the older name Neptis Fabricius, 1807. 

 It will be seen therefore that the acceptance — as now seen to be required under the Code — of 

 the " Pantoporia-Group " species as the type-species of Athyma is fully in harmony with the 

 general practice of authors. As pointed out by myself in 1934 (J oc - c ^- 1 : 87), the name 

 Parathyma Moore, [1898] would be the oldest available generic name for species of the " Panto- 

 poria-Group " if it were necessary — as is now seen not to be the case — to apply the name 

 Athyma to the " Neptis-Group." Even the name Parathyma Moore will not be adversely 

 affected by the acceptance of the name Athyma Westwood as the valid name for the genus 

 having as its type-species the nominal species Papilio leucothoe Linnaeus, 1758 ( = a junior 

 subjective synonym of Papilio perius Linnaeus, 1758) if currently considered subjectively on 

 taxonomic grounds to be distinct from that having Papilio sulpitia Cramer, [1779], as type- 

 species, that is, as being distinct from the genus Parathyma Moore, [1898]. 



ATHYMODES Moore, [1896], Lep. ind. 3 (25) : 10. Type-species by original designation : 

 Atyma [sic] nycteis Menetries, 1858, Bull. phys. math. Acad. Sci. St. Petersb. 17 : 215. 



The nominal species Atyma nycteis Menetries is currently treated subjectively on taxonomic 

 grounds as representing the same taxon as that represented by the nominal species Atyma 

 cassiope Menetries, 1858, ibid. 17 : 214). Since these names were published in the same work 



