INJURIOUS LEPIDOPTERA, ETC. 



Darapsa Myron (Cramer). 

 The Green Grapevine Sphinx. 



(Ord. Lepidoptera: Fam. Sphtngid^.) 



Sphinx Myron Cramer: Pap. Exot., iii, 1782, pi. 247, f. C. 



Sphinx pampinatrix Sm.-Abb. : Lep. Ins. Geo., i, 1797, p. 55, pi. 28. 



Otus Myron Hubner: Verz. Schmett., 1816, p. 142, No. 1524. 



Otus Cnotus Hubn. : Zutr. 3d Hund., 1823, p. 23, figs. 321, 322. 



? Smerinthus Myron: St. Farg.-Serv. : in Encyc. Method., x, 1823, p. 441. 



Every x Myron Boisduval : in Sp. Gen. Heteroc., i, 1836, p. 209. 



Chcerocampa pampinatrix Harris : in Sill. Journ., xxxvi, 1839, p. 301. 



Darapsa Myron Walker: List Lep. Br. Mus., Pt. viii, 1856, p. 183. 



Ampelophaga Myron Grote: in Canad. Entomol., xviii, 1886, p. 132. 



Above are given the various names under which this common and 

 injurious insect appears in our literature.* Of these, the name 

 bestowed upon it by Dr. Harris was expressive of the appearance and 

 habits of the caterpillar chcerocampa, meaning, in the Greek, "the hog 

 caterpillar," and suggested by the fancied resemblance of its front 

 segments to the head and snout of a hog (see Fig. 5), Midi pampinatrix 

 signifying, in the Latin, " a vine-pruner." Scientific names should, 

 whenever possible, indicate some feature, character, habit, or peculiarity 

 of the object or creature to which they are applied, and it is, there- 

 fore, to be regretted that the one selected by Dr. Harris for this 

 insect could not have been retained, but in obedience to the law of 

 priority, the specific name given to it by Cramer fifty years before 

 must be substituted for it, although a mere chance-chosen proper 

 name. The six different genera to which it has been referred since 

 Cramer's time illustrates the lamentable want of fixity in generic 

 appellations — an evil which we will have to endure so long as there 

 are those among us who are seemingly goaded by an irresistible 

 impulse to cut to pieces the old genera, and to endeavor to give 

 vitality to new. It is a sore evil, fettering science, and tending to 

 impede its progress instead of aiding in its advance. Favored above 



* Other bibliography of the species is omitted in consideration of its extent. 



