GENERIC NAMES OF BUTTERFLIES 369 



Staudinger stated that Polygrapha was a manuscript name for a genus with the above 

 species as type-species which Schatz intended to describe in the second portion of their 

 joint work. The publication of this name by Staudinger with a type-species for the genus 

 constituted prior to 1930 a valid publication for a generic name ; accordingly Polygrapha is 

 attributable to Staudinger and ranks for priority as from March 1887. Schatz did not live 

 to publish this generic name which was however published by Rober in [October 1888] (in 

 Schatz, in Staudinger & Schatz, Exot. Schmett. Bd 1 (Th. 2) : 169 nota 1, 174, 175 ; ibid. 

 2 : pi. 29) in his continuation of the text of Schatz's volume. Rober also placed only Paphia 

 cyanea Salvin & Godman in Polygrapha. 



POLY M ASTOR Gaede, 1931, in Strand's Lep. Cat. 46 : 510 (an Incorrect Subsequent Spelling 

 of Polymastus Thieme, 1907). 



POLYMASTUS Thieme, 1907, Berl. ent. Z. 51 (2) : 138. Type-species by original designation: 

 Daedalma doraete Hewitson, [1858], ///. exot. Butts 2 : [85], pi. [4], figs 4, 5<J. 



The name Polymastus Thieme is invalid, as it is a junior homonym of Polymastus Claparede, 

 1864 {Mini. Soc. Phys. Geneve 17 : 2). It has been replaced by the name Junea Hemming, 

 1964. 



POLYNIPHES Kaye, 1904, Trans, ent. Soc. Lond. 1904 : 191. Type-species by original 

 designation : Polyommatus dumenilii Godart, [1824], Ency. mith. 9 (Ins.) (2) : 677. 



POLYOMMATUS Latreille, 1804, Nouv. Diet. Hist. not. 24 (Tab.) : 185, 200. Type-species 

 by designation by the Commission under the Plenary Powers under Section (a) (misidentified 

 type-species) of Article 70 : Papilio icarus Rottemburg, 1775, Der Naturforscher 6 : 31. 



Polyommatus Latreille is a genus which was originally established with a misidentified type- 

 species. Latreille placed in this genus a single species which he called by the name " argus 

 Fab." Fabricius never published Papilio argus as the name for a new species of his own, 

 but he frequently made the use of the name Papilio argus Linnaeus, 1758, employing it 

 apparently in the correct sense. If it were to have been assumed that Latreille, when 

 introducing the present genus, correctly interpreted the nominal species Papilio argus 

 Linnaeus — that is, if in the present matter he had followed Fabricius — the name Polyommatus 

 Latreille would have been invalid, as it would have been a junior objective synonym of 

 Plebejus Kluk, 1802, of which the same nominal species is the type-species. But it is quite 

 clear that such an assumption would have run counter to Latreille's intention. While there 

 is no explicit evidence of the nature of his intentions in his entry relating to the genus 

 Polyommatus in the Nouv. Diet. Hist. nat. of 1805, such evidence was provided by Latreille 

 on each of the next two occasions on which he used this generic name, namely in 1805 (in 

 Sonnini's Buffon, Ins. 14 : 116) and in 1817 (in Cuvier's Rdgne Anim. 3 : 553), in each of 

 which he cited a reference to Engramelle's " P. argus bleu, pi. 38, fig. 80 ", adding in 1817 a 

 reference to figs 292-294 in the Papilio Section of Hiibner's Samml. europ. Schmett. From 

 the figures so cited it is perfectly clear that the taxon which Latreille called " Papilio argus 

 F"ab." was that represented by the nominal species Papilio icarus Rottemburg, 1775, the 

 commonest and most widely distributed of the European Plebejids. It must be noted 

 moreover that it was this species to which the specific name argus Linnaeus was commonly — 

 though incorrectly — applied in Latreille's time by many European lepidopterists, particularly 

 in France. The name Polyommatus Latreille was used in various incorrect senses during the 

 XlXth century, in most cases through misconceptions as to the work in which that name was 

 first published. But by the third decade of the XXth century this generic name had been 

 universally treated as though its type-species were Papilio icarus Rottemburg, which, as 

 shown above, is in accordance with Latreille's original intention. 



In the circumstances described above, it would have been a pointless piece of name- 

 changing to have disturbed the long-established usage of the name Polyommatus Latreille, 

 and accordingly in 1935 a request was submitted to the Commission for the use of the Plenary 

 Powers to designate as the type-species of this genus the nominal species Papilio icarus 

 Rottemburg, 1775. This request was approved by the Commission, whose decision was 



