GENERIC NAMES OF BUTTERFLIES 455 



Moore, as applied to the present Lycaenid genus, is therefore invalid as a junior homonym 

 of the name Vadebra Moore, as applied to the Danaid genus. 



VAGA Zimmermann, 1958, Ins. Hawaii 7 : 491. Type-species by original designation : 

 Holochila blackburni Tuely, 1878, Ent. mon. Mag. 15 : 9. 



VAGRANS Hemming, 1934, Entomologist 67 : 77. Type-species by original designation : 

 Papilio egista Cramer, [1780], Uitl. Kapellen 3 (24) : 158, pi. 281, figs C, D. 



This well-recognized genus remained without a name until in 1934 I established the nominal 

 genus Vagrans for it, with Papilio egista Cramer as type-species. Previously, mainly through 

 the action of Moore in 1900 (Lep. ind. 4 (46) : 202) in stating that Papilio egista was the type- 

 species of Issoria Hiibner, [1819], this genus was widely known by that generic name. 

 Moore's action was entirely misconceived because as far back as 1875 (Proc. amer. Acad. Arts 

 Sci., Boston 10 : 198) Scudder had validly selected as the type-species of Issoria the entirely 

 different Argynnid species Papilio lathonia Linnaeus, 1758. 



VALERIA Horsfield, [1829], Cat. lep. Ins. Mus. East India Coy (2) : 139. Type-species by 

 monotypy : Papilio Valeria Cramer, [1776], Uitl. Kapellen 1 (8) : 133, pi. 75, fig. A. 



Owing — presumably — to a survival of the early-nineteenth-century antipathy to tautonymy 

 between the name of a genus and the name of the included species, the specific name Valeria 

 Cramer was put on one side formerly by many authors who preferred the later subjective 

 synonym hippia, (Papilio hippia Fabricius, 1787, Mantissa Ins. 2 : 55). 



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

 Latreille (1810, Consid. ge"n. Anim. Crust. Arach. Ins. : 440,354) : Papilio atalanta Linnaeus, 

 1758, Syst. Nat. (ed. 10) 1 : 478. 



At the same time that Fabricius established the genus Vanessa with the above species as 

 type-species (by subsequent selection), he established also a genus to which he gave the 

 name Cynthia, the type-species of which is the closely allied nominal species Papilio cardui 

 Linnaeus, 1758. In the mid-nineteen-thirties it was judged desirable to request the Com- 

 mission to give a ruling that precedence was to be given to the name Vanessa over the name 

 Cynthia. Looked at in retrospect, Article 28 in the old text of the Code seems reasonably 

 clear, but it did not appear so at the time, and either for this or other reasons many ento- 

 mologists at that time adhered to the so-called Principle of Page and Line Precedence. The 

 adoption of this course in the present case would have been disastrous, for Cynthia Fabricius 

 would have been accorded precedence over the exceptionally well-known name Vanessa 

 Fabricius, which would have disappeared as a junior subjective synonym. Even for those 

 who sought to apply the First Reviser Principle in this case, the position was obscure owing 

 to the difficulty — always present when applying that principle to old names having an exten- 

 sive literature — of determining where, when and by whom an effective First Reviser choice 

 had been made. 



The application discussed above was approved by the Commission at Lisbon in 1935 but 

 owing to financial and administrative difficulties, greatly aggravated by the outbreak of the 

 War in Europe in 1939, the Opinion (Opinion 156) embodying that decision was not published 

 until 1944 (Opin. int. Comm. zool. Nom. 2 : 239-250). In that Opinion the Commission 

 gave directions under its Plenary Powers that the name Vanessa was to be accorded pre- 

 cedence over the name Cynthia. At the same time the name Vanessa Fabricius was placed 

 on the Official List of Generic Names in Zoology as Name No. 601. 



VANESSULA Dewitz, 1887, Ent. Nachr. 13 : 145. Type-species by monotypy : Vanessula 

 buchneri Dewitz, 1887, ibid. 13 : 146, 2 text-figs [on page 145]. 



The taxon represented by the nominal species Vanessula buchneri is currently treated 

 subjectively on taxonomic grounds as being the same as that represented by the older- 

 established nominal species Liptena milca Hewitson, [1873] (III. exot. Butts 5 : [86], pi. [45], 

 fig. 17). [It will be noted that Hewitson fell into the error of supposing that this Nymphalid 

 species was a Lycaenid.] 



