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A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



Xo. 81. 



MAY 21st, 1881. 



Vol. 2. 



NOMENCLATURE. 



Fifth Paper. 

 VAIUKTIKS. 



OUB previous papers on this sub- 

 ject have had reference to the 

 names of species only. There are one 

 or two side issues, as they may be 

 called, of which some notice should be 

 taken. The most important is the 

 naming of varieties. It has frequently 

 appened that when a well marked 

 piety lias been first taken, it has been 

 thought to be a distinct species. This 

 was an error that collectors were' more 

 kely to commit in the earlier days of 

 the science than they are now. There 

 are many species of which such varie- 

 ties occur with considerable regularity. 

 These, especially when they were found 

 in one place and not in another, were 

 almost always considered distinct, par- 

 ticularly if the type did not occur with 

 them. As a natural result they were 

 iven a name intended to be the name 

 of the supposed new species. As an 

 illustration we may refer to the little 

 butterfly, known as Lyccena Artaxerxes, 

 the Scotch White-spot; when this was 



first found, no one, we dare say, 

 i doubted its distinctness. It had two 

 well marked characteristics, a white 

 spot on the centre of the fore wing, 

 where Medon ( Ageaiis) had a black one, 

 and the white spots on the under side 

 were without the black centres that 

 I were always found in its near neigh- 

 bour. As specimens began to incrense 

 in cabinets, slight variations were 

 ! noticed both in Medon and Artaxerxes, 

 and eventually an intermediate form 

 was found, which was called Salmacis. 

 Then some shrewd observer called 

 I attention to the fact that Medon 

 I occurred in the south and Artaxerxes in 

 | the north, and Salmacis in localities 

 : between the two. Doubts were ex- 

 j pressed, Salmacis did not appear in our 

 list as a species, and Artaxerxes got 

 a ? after its name. Eventually Mr. 

 Buckler bred all three, Artaxerxes from 

 Scotch larvie, Medon from South of 

 England larvae, and all three forms 

 together from larva? from one locality 

 in the north of England. Thus Ar- 

 taxerxes drops out of the list of species, 

 and becomes a variety. We have en- 

 larged on this case that our younger 

 readers may understand the process by 



