GENERIC NAMES OF BUTTERFLIES 123 



belonging to his genus Colotis were treated by Kirby as representing the same taxon, being 

 united under the name amata Fabricius. Scudder, following the same course stated that amata 

 Fabricius was the type-species of this genus. Scudder's action was accepted by later authors 

 as constituting the selection of the first of Hiibner's species (i.e. that to which he applied the 

 name calais Cramer and for which he cited figs A & B on plate 351) as the type-species of 

 Colotis, this view being considered justifiable because he had cited amata Fabricius in the 

 synonymy of calais. 



At this point it is necessary briefly to leave the strictly nomenclatorial field, in order to 

 examine the interpretation of the nominal species Papilio calais Cramer owing to the bearing 

 of this question on the interpretation of the present genus. First, it must be noted that 

 according to long-established taxonomic opinion two different taxa were described and figured 

 under the name Papilio calais in Cramer's l.'itl. Kapellen. These taxa are considered to be 

 subspecies of a single spet ies, the name usually used for the collective-species so recognized 

 being calais Cramer. The taxon recognized as the nominate subspecies of this collective 

 species occurs over ,1 wide area in Tropical Africa, outside which it has only been recorded 

 from Aden. The second taxon figured under the name calais in the / 'ill. Kapellen is currently 

 known by the name amata Fabricius and occurs from Syria through Persia to Central and 

 Southern India. On the basis of the foregoing taxonomic analysis the figures given in 

 Cramer's Uitl. Kapellen may be examined as follows : The specific name calais as published by 

 Cramer in 1775 (Uitl. Kapellen 1 (5) : 84, pi. 53, figs C, D) is a nomenclatorially available name 

 and is the oldest such name applicable to the taxon occurring in Tropical Africa. The taxon 

 described and figured as Papilio calais by Stoll in 1781 [in Cramer, Uitl. Kapellen 4 (30) : 

 118, pi. 351) is thai which, as explained above, occurs from Syria to Southern India and is 

 currently identified with the taxon named Papilio amata by Fabricius in 1775. It is this 

 taxon whkh Scudder in 1875 selected as the type-species of Colotis Hiibner. 



For many years it was considered that the type-species of a nominal genus must be one 

 which the author of the gene in name in question had accepted as .1 taxonomically good species. 

 On this basis the genus Colotis 1 [iibner was considered to have been based upon a misidentified 

 type-species. Its type-species was commonly riled as it was by myself in 1934 (Ge». 

 Names hoi. Butts 1 : 133) — as Papilio calais Cramer, Stoll, [1781], nee Cramer, th.it name being 

 synonymized simultaneously with the name Papilio amata Fabricius. Luckily, this difficulty 

 disappeared on the publication oi the present revised Code which embodies in Article 69(a) (i) 

 a decision taken by the Thirteenth International Congress of Zoology in Paris in 1948, under 

 which a nominal species, the name of which is cited in the synonymy of an included species at 

 the time of the establishment of a genus, itself ranks as an originally included species. Under 

 this provision the nominal species Papilio amata Fabricius, the name of which (as already 

 noted) was cited by Hiibner in the synonymy of the first of the species included by him in 

 Colotis — i.e. Species No. 1033, to which Hiibner erroneously applied the specific name calais 

 Cramer, itself acquires the rank of an originally included species. Further, in view of the 

 action (already described) taken by Scudder in 1875 the nominal species Papilio amata 

 Fabricius becomes the unchallengeable type-species of the genus Colo/is Hiibner. 



Finally, there is a point which requires examination in connection with the relative prece- 

 dence to be accorded to the names Papilio calais Cramer and Papilio amata Fabricius which 

 (as already explained) are considered subjectively to apply to two subspecies of a single 

 specific unit. These names were both published in the year 1775 and there was until recently 

 no means for determining which of these names was the first to be published. This difficulty 

 was overcome in 1958 (Opin. int. Comm. zool. Nom. 19 : 1-44) when the Commission promul- 

 gated its Opinion 516, in which it was ruled under the Commission's Plenary Powers that 

 the Syst. Ent. of Fabricius is to be accorded precedence above the portions of Cramer's, 

 Uitl. Kapellen also published in 1775. Under this ruling the name Papilio amata Fabricius 

 1775, takes precedence over the name Papilio calais Cramer, [1775]. It thus becomes the 

 oldest nomenclatorially available name subjectively available to the present species. It also 

 becomes automatically the name for the nominate subspecies, and the name calais Cramer 



