GENERIC NAMES OF BUTTERFLIES 211 



Opinion 382 (published in 1956) on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology as Name 

 No. 923. 



HELICONIUS Latreille, 1804, Nouv. Diet. Hist. nal. 24 (Tab.) : 185, 199. Type-species by 

 selection by Hemming (1933, Entomologist 66: 198) : Papilio charithonia Linnaeus, 1767, 

 Syst. Nat. (ed. 12) 1 (2) : 757. 



In the work cited above Latreille gave a diagnosis for this genus on page 185 but did not cite 

 any nominal species; on page 199 however in a comparison of his system with that of Fabricius 

 he cited Papilio ricini Linnaeus and Papilio charithonia Linnaeus (both attributed by him to 

 Fabricius). It should be noted here that Latreille noted (on page 95) that this was a new 

 genus by placing an asterisk against it. 



The subsequent history of this name from the nomenclatorial point of view is, for one 

 hundred and thirty years, one of continuous misunderstanding; numerous attempts were made 

 to select a type-species for this genus, but these all failed because none of the species so 

 selected was included in the genus when it was first established by Latreille in 1804. In some 

 cases this seems to have been due to the authors who made the selections erroneously taking 

 one of Latreille's later publications as having been that in which he first published the name 

 H eliconius , while in others it seems to have been due solely to inadvertence. It might have 

 been hoped that in this, as in many other cases, Latreille might have made a valid type-selec- 

 tion for this genus in his celebrated Consid. gin. of 1810; but unfortunately in that work he 

 cited two species, instead of one only, as " especes typiques " ; moreover neither of the species 

 which he then cited (Papilio polymnia Linnaeus and Papilio horta Linnaeus, both attributed by 

 Latreille to Fabricius, because it was with that author's system that he was then comparing 

 his own) had been included in Heliconius in 1804. There follow three type-selections all of 

 which are invalid, because the species so selected were not originally included species of this 

 genus. The pseudotypes so set up are the following: (a) Papilio psidii Linnaeus, specified by 

 Crotch in 1872 (Cistula ent. 1 : 60); (b) Papilio antiochus Linnaeus, specified by Scudder in 

 1875 (Proc. amer. Acad. Arts Sci., Boston 10 : 185); (c) Papilio melpomene Linnaeus, specified 

 by Kirby in 1894 (in Allen's Nat. Libr., Lepid. 1 : 41). The genus Heliconius Latreille re- 

 mained without a valid type-species until in 1933 I selected as such Papilio charithonia 

 Linnaeus, the second of the two species placed in this genus by Latreille 1804. 



The name Heliconius Latreille is invalid as a junior homonym of the name Heliconius Kluk; 

 it is invalid also as being a junior objective synonym of that name. In 1956 this name was 

 placed by the Commission in its Opinion 382 on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid 

 Generic Names in Zoology as Name No. 383. 



HELICOPIS [Illiger], 1807, Allgem. Lit. Ztg, Halle [Jena] 1807 (No. 2) : 1180 Type-species by 

 monotypy : Papilio gnidus Fabricius, 1787, Mantissa Ins. 2 : 64. 



The name Helicopis [Illiger] is one of the twelve names, well-known and in general use as 

 from the date of their publication by Fabricius in 1807, which it was discovered in 1939 had 

 been published with different included species in an anonymous paper of Illiger's which 

 slightly predated that of Fabricius. A full account of this unfortunate discovery has been 

 given in the note on the name Apatura [Illiger] (the first in alphabetical order of the names 

 concerned). It is necessary here only to note that in the interests of nomenclatorial stability 

 the Commission was asked to suppress under its Plenary Powers all these Illiger names, 

 thereby validating their Fabrician counterparts. This application was approved by the Com- 

 mission, its decision being promulgated in its Opinion 232 (1954, Opin. int. Comm. zool. 

 Nom. 4 : 249-274). In that Opinion the name Helicopis [Illiger] was suppressed for the 

 purposes both of the Law of Priority and for those of the Law of Homonymy and was placed 

 on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in Zoology as Name No. 42. 



HELICOPIS Fabricius, 1807, Mag.f. Insecktenk. (Illiger) 6 : 285. Type-species by selection by 

 Scudder (1875, Proc. amer. Acad. Arts Sci., Boston 10 : 186) : Papilio cupido Linnaeus, 

 1758, Syst. Nat. (ed. 10) 1 : 482. 



This well-known Riodinid name was found to suffer from two quite distinct defects, each of 



