136 FRANCIS HEMMING 



CYNEA Evans, 1955, Cat. amer. Hesp. Brit. RIns. 4 : 265, 275. Type-species by original 

 designation : Hesperia cynea Hewitson, 1876, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (4) 18 : 456. 



CYNITIA Snellen, 1895, Tijdschr. Ent. 38 : 20. Type-species through Section (i) (replacement 

 names) of Article 67 : Felderia phlegethon Semper (G.), 1888, in Semper (C.G.), Reise 

 Archipel Philipp . (2) (No. 5) (Schmett.) : 90, pi. 17, figs 6, 7 6*. 8, 9 $. 



Snellen introduced the name Cynitia as a replacement for Felderia Semper, 1888, which is 

 invalid, as it is a junior homonym of Felderia Walsingham, 1887 {Trans, ent. Soc. Lond. 

 1887 : 165). 



Cynitia takes automatically as its type-species the species which is the type-species of 

 Felderia Semper. The latter was without a type-species when it was established by Felder in 

 1888, but the above species had become its type-species (by selection by de Niceville in 1893) 

 before Felderia was replaced by Cynitia. 



CYNTHIA Fabricius, 1807, Mag. f. Insektenk. (Illiger) 6 : 281. Type-species by selection by 

 Westwood (1840, Introd. class. Ins. 2, Syn. : 87) : Papilio cardui Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. 

 Nat. (ed. 10) 1 : 475. 



The taxon represented by the nominal species Papilio cardui, the type-species of the present 

 genus, is currently treated subjectively on taxonomic grounds as being congeneric with the 

 taxon represented by the nominal species Papilio atalanta Linnaeus, the type-species of 

 the genus bearing the very well-known name Vanessa Fabricius, 1807. The name Cynthia and 

 Vanessa are thus subjective synonyms of one another. When this matter was considered in 

 1934, the First Reviser principle which then (as now) governed the relative precedence to be 

 accorded to any two names published on the same date was widely disregarded by entomolo- 

 gists in favour of the principle of page and line precedence. The adoption of the second of 

 these courses in the present instance would have involved the substitution of the name Cynthia 

 Fabricius (published on page 281 as Species No. 11) for the name Vanessa Fabricius (published 

 on page 281 as Species No. 12). The importance of protecting the name Vanessa from this 

 risk was considered so great that it was decided to submit an application to the Commission 

 for the adoption of an Opinion giving a ruling in terms which would protect the position of the 

 name Vanessa Fabricius. 



The proposed approach to the Commission was made in February 1934 an d a decision on it 

 was reached by that body at its Session held at Lisbon in September 1935. For administrative 

 and other reasons there was a considerable delay in promulgating the Lisbon decision. It was 

 ultimately promulgated in Opinion 156, published in 1944 [Opin. int. Comm. zool. Nom. 

 2 : 239-250). By the ruling so given the name Cynthia Fabricius was given precedence 

 below the name Vanessa Fabricius. At the same time the name Vanessa Fabricius, 

 endorsed as having precedence above Cynthia Fabricius, was placed on the Official List of 

 Generic Names in Zoology as Name No. 601. The action required in this case was completed 

 in 1954 (Opin. int. Comm. zool. Nom. 2 : 629252) when in its Direction 4 the Commission 

 endorsed the name Cynthia Fabricius as a name "to be used by any specialist who may 

 consider that the type-species of this genus is generically distinct from Papilio atalanta 

 Linnaeus, 1758, but not to be used in preference to the name Vanessa Fabricius, 1807 ". The 

 name Cynthia Fabricius was thereupon placed on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology 

 as Name No. 805. 



Although prior to the rulings by the Commission set out above, the name Cynthia Fabricius 

 had occasionally been used as the equivalent of Vanessa Fabricius, it had been much more 

 widely used erroneously for a quite different group in the family Nymphalidae. This arose 

 from the acceptance of the invalid action by Scudder in 1875 (Proc. amer. Acad. Arts Sci., 

 Boston 10 : 152) in selecting Papilio arsinoe Cramer, [1777] (Uitl. Kapellen 2 (14) : 100, pi. 

 160, figs B, C.) In consequence, that species was long without a valid name objectively 

 applicable to it ; this deficiency was made good on the publication of the name Vindula 

 Hemming, 1934. 



CYRENIA Westwood, [October 1851], in Doubleday, Gen. diurn. Lep. (2) : 434, nota, pi. 72, 



