50 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



within our own time, and more are in 

 process of transition. First the older 

 name appears in a Synonymic Cata- 

 logue, such as that by Mr. W. F. Kirby. 

 Then the two names are printed 

 together in brackets, in our printed 

 lists or journals, as we printed Aurinia 

 and Artemis on page 36, or one is put 

 after the other thus : Aurinia — Artemis, 

 and after a time the name that has 

 been used in error is dropped altogether, 

 and becomes only a synonym. Thus 

 Blcundina has already disappeared from 

 some of our printed lists, and the older 

 name of Medea has taken its place. 

 Cassiope has been replaced by Epiphron, 

 and Dispar by Hippothoe, on the other 

 hand Icarus is still bracketted with 

 Alexis, Minima with Alsus, and so on. 

 In time the right name will be uni- 

 versally adopted, and then all is easy. 



A novice looking in a Synonymic 

 Catalogue, at a spicies like Aurinia 

 (Artemis ) might almost be disheartened 

 if he thought he had all this to learn,, 

 like a school-boy's lesson ; this insect 

 having had more than a dozen names 

 given to it by one writer or another. 

 But however troublesome synonymy 

 may be to those who have to puzzle 

 themselves with it, they would find it 

 much more difficult to understand their 

 study without it, and Ave believe the 

 publication of Mr. Doubleday's Syno- 

 nymic Catalogue of British Lepidoptera 

 did more to assist British Entomologists 

 (though it was only a list of names) 

 than any other work that has been 

 published. Our young readers will 

 understand therefore that it is not at all 



necessary that they should puzzle their r 

 | brains over synonymy. Let them 

 I leave that to the " Closet Naturalists " 

 ' if they like, they only need to under- ^ 

 I stand • the general principles of the 

 system of naming species, and when 

 they study any difficult or variable 

 I species they will find a good synonymic ^ ; 

 I catalogue, and a proper understanding 

 of it, a great help to them. Till they 

 require that information, they need - 

 | not distress themselves about the dim- ^ : 

 \ cullies. As an illustration, we may : 

 refer to the synonymy of that variable - 

 I species, C. Davus, the Heath Butterfly, 

 : with reference to the Books on Ento- »• 

 mology, now in use in this country. 61 

 \ In Stainton's Manual it it called C. v 

 Davus only, and is described as a " 

 variable species. In Newman's British • 

 Butterflies two descriptions are given, * 

 the form with few or no eyed spots > 

 : being called Davus, and said to be the 



° If A 



same as the species called Typhon, by k: 

 j Haworth, over which the name Davus of fa 

 j Fabrieius had priority. The second r 

 species which has very distinct eyed 

 spotsiscalled Rotkliebiiajid. saidto be the h 

 j same as the Davus of Haworth but not ^ 

 of Fabrieius. In Eirby's European But- 

 terflies these are considered to be dis- , 

 tinct species, and that with distinct eyes j 

 is csille&Davus ; with indistinct eyes Ty- t 

 I plion. Nowhere is veryconsiderable con- : 

 fusion and yet it is very easily put right J 

 j by a reference to the synonymy of the 

 species, which shows also that other and 

 earlier writers used other names. The 

 i explanation of the difficulties will be 

 found below : 



