THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



119 



that had been discovered that year bj British Entomologists. I give the 

 names that had been bestowed on twelve of them, and the Entomologists 

 who had so named them : — 



Homalota Saundersi, Eye 



Gyrophoena Poweri, Crotch 



Lathrobrum Jansoni, Crotch 



Stenus Shepherdi, Crotch 



Lesteva Sharpi, Eye 



Cryptophagus Waterhousei, Rye 



Telephonus Darwinianus, Sharp 



Trichopteryx Waterhousii, Matthews 



Trichopteryx Jansoni, Matthews 



There was also 



Telephorus Scoticus, Eye 

 of which the writer observes " This insect appears at last to have found a 

 correct local habitation and a name." But worse still, there was Trichopteryx 

 Saras, Matthews, named in honour of Mrs. Matthews, yet no one complained 

 about that, that I know of, as they did when a gentleman called a butterfly 

 Spilleri after himself. Thus eleven out of nineteen were named after persons, 

 and the twelfth after a place, leaving only seven with names that wight be 

 descriptive. Being an Ignoramus I cannot explain why one species is called 

 Waterhous^ and another Waterhousii, while one % only serves for the others. 

 No doubt some learned scribe could show that one was wrong, and another 

 that the other was not right, but my point is, that right or wrong, appropriate 

 or inappropriate, these names served to distinguish the species, and what 

 more could any one desire. 



Let me suggest a new topic for learned discussion, namely, the inappropri- 

 ateness of calling both sexes of an insect after either a man or a woman. A 

 miner, evidently a pigeon fancier, took his child to church to be christened. 

 He had not fixed upon a name and the good Curate suggested Benjamin as 

 appropriate. The man liked it, the ceremony was duly performed, but as 

 little Benjamin was being carrried down the aisle a thought suddenly struck 

 the parent. Stopping abruptly, he called out to the Curate, " Hey ! a say 

 mister, the young squeeker's a lass/' The question of sex had been taken for 

 granted or had escaped notice. What was to be done now. The Entomo- 

 logical Law of Priority, was not more unalterable than that of the Church. 

 Once christened always christened, but the Curate dreading the ridicule to 

 which he might be exposed, suggested a way out of the difficulty. He 

 proposed to add u a " to the name, making it Benjamina, which could be 

 done without any erasure in the register. To this the father consented, and 



