108 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



of Drs. Staudinger and Wocke published subsequently, the names of many of 

 these rejected writers have been adopted, while some used by Guenee and 

 Doubleday have, been rejected. Doubleday afterwards issued a supple- 

 mental list in which some authors names were used that he had not used 

 before, e.g. : 



Xylina furcifera, Hufn. (1767). 

 conformis, W.V. (1776). 

 In giving precedence to HufnagePs names therefore, I assume I have done as 

 Doubleday would have done had he issued a new edition of his catalogue. 

 I need not multiply illustrations. 



Drs. Staudinger and Wocke have rejected names given by accepted authors 

 that only appeared in catalogues, or were appended to species in collec- 

 tions. They thus rejected a great many of the names in the Vienna Catalogue 

 (W.Y. of Doubleday, Schiff of South), and gave precedence to others of sub- 

 sequent date. Guenee and Doubleday, for reasons that they thought satis- 

 factory, after full investigation, adopted the whole of the names in the Vienna 

 Catalogue, and as they are in general use in Britain, I have still given them 

 precedence. In one respect I have departed from the strict law of priority. 

 Where some older name appeared to have precedence over the Linnean 

 appellation I have, nevertheless, given the first place to that of Linneus, believ- 

 ing that we certainly ought not to go behind him in our investigations. 



We are very inconsistent in our adoption of changes. Thus Icarus, Rottem- 

 burg, 1775-7, has crept into general use, displacing Alexis, Hubner. Yet we 

 do not seem willing to accept Bellargus of the same author, in lieu of the 

 better known Adonis of Fabrieius, though the latter name appears full of doubt. 

 It almost seems as if we could accept one alteration at a time, but not more. 

 If an enumeration were given here of the species, of which the names now in 

 general use are not those of Doubleday, I expect those who complain of 

 the changes I have made would rather open their eyes. Even in the Butterflies, 

 Doubleday' s Cassiqpe, Blandina, Davus, Hippotkoce, Alexis, &c. have been 

 abandoned, but in every case the alterations have been made gradually as it 

 were. If the "new names " are rightly given, they also will gradually 

 supplant the old ones as others have done, and I have endeavoured to print 

 them so that they can be used for labels in either case. Any one objecting 

 to the change can cut off the upper name, while it will always be well to 

 have both in a reference list. 



What is wanted now, is, as I have said before, for the Entomological 

 Society to appoint a committee who should (in conjunction with the principal 

 foreign societies or leading lepidopterists), draw up a list, the names of which 

 should be accepted by every one, and be subject to no future alteration. The 



