GENERIC NAMES OF BUTTERFLIES 279 



MATAPA Moore, [1881], Lep. Ceylon 1 (4) : 163. Type-species by original designation : 

 Ismene aria Moore, [1866], Proc. zool. Soc. Lond. 1865 (3) : 784. 



MATAPOIDES Druce, 1912, Ann. Mag. rial. Hist. (8) 9 : 502. Type-species by original 

 designation : Matapoides smaragdinus Druce, 191 2, ibid. (8) 9 : 502. 



MATHANIA Oberthur, 1890, Ann. Soc. ent. Fr. (6) 10, Bull. 1890 : xx. Type-species by 

 selection by Klots (1931, Ent. amer. (n.s.) 12 (3) : 151, 171) : Mathania esther Oberthur, 

 1890, ibid. (6) 10, Bull. 1890 : xxi. 



MAUREBIA Gaede, 1931, in Strand's Lep. Cat. 48 : 703 (an Incorrect Subsequent Spelling of 

 Manerebia Staudinger, 1897). 



MCCLUNGIA Fox, 1940, Trans, amer. ent. Soc. 66 : 174, 201. Type-species by original 

 designation : Ithomia salonina Hewitson, [1855], ///. exot. Butts 1 : [46], pi. [23], fig. 86. 



This generic name, being based on the modern patronymic " Mcclung ", was correctly 

 spelled by Fox, as shown above, even though the resulting name is a quite impossible Latin 

 word. 

 MEANDRUSA Moore, 1888, Descr. new ind. Lep. Coll. Atkinson (3) : 284. Type-species by 

 original designation : Papilio evan Doubleday, 1845, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. 16 : 235. 



The taxon represented by the nominal species Papilio evan Doubleday is currently treated 

 subjectively on taxonomic grounds as being a subspecies of the taxon represented by the older- 

 established nominal species Papilio payeni Boisduval, [1836], ((Roret's Suite a Buffon), Hist, 

 nat Ins., Spec. gen. Lcpid. 1 : 235). 



P'urther, the above taxon is currently considered to be congeneric with Papilio gyas West- 

 wood, 1841, the type-species of the nominal genus Danasa Moore, 188. The names Meandrusa 

 and Dabasa were published in the same paper and on the same date as one another. Accord- 

 ingly, the relative precedence to be accorded to these names depends on the choice made by 

 the First Reviser (Article 24(a)). The First Reviser in this case was Evans (1927, I dent. ind. 

 Butts [ed. 1] : 25) who accorded precedence to the name Meandrusa, sinking Dabasa as a 

 junior synonym of that name. 



MECHANITES Hiibner, [1820], Samml. exot. Schmett. 2 : pi. [2] (also pi. [1] of the same volume 

 published in [1823]) (an Incorrect Subsequent Spelling of Merchanitis Fabricius, 1807). 



MECHANITIS [llliger], 1807, Allgeiu. Lit. Ztg, Halle [Jena] 1807 (No. 2) : 1180, 1181. Type- 

 species by selection by Hemming (1964, Annot. lep. (4) : 125) : Nereis dianasa Hiibner, [1806], 

 Samml. exot. Schmett. 1 : pi. [8]. 



This is one of the twelve names, well-known and in common use as from the date of their 

 publication by Fabricius in 1807, which it was discovered in 1939 had been published slightly 

 earlier in an anonymous paper by llliger, by whom they had employed in a quite different way. 

 A full account of this unfortunate discovery has been given in the note on the name Apatura 

 [llliger] (the first in alphabetical order of the names concerned). It is necessary here only to 

 note that the adoption of these Illigerian names would have led to the most devastating con- 

 fusion. In many cases the type-species do not even belong to the same families as those of the 

 genera bearing the corresponding Fabrician names. In the case of the genus Mechanitis 

 [llliger] there were seven included nominal species, of which not one was an Ithomiid, all being 

 Nymphalids. In order to deal with the situation described, it was decided to ask the Commis- 

 sion to use its Plenary Powers to suppress these ill-starred Illigerian names, thus validating their 

 Fabrician counterparts. 



The application submitted in this case was approved by the Commission which embodied its 

 decision in its Opinion 232 which was promulgated in 1954 {Opin. int. Comm. zool. Nom. 4 : 

 249-274). In that Opinion the name Mechanitis [llliger] was suppressed under the Plenary 

 Powers for the purposes both of the Law of Priority and of the Law of Homonymy. It was 

 thereupon placed on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Generic Names in Zoology as 

 Name No. 43. 



In order to provide this name with a definite burial place in the literature the nominal 



