12(3 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
appeared, though exposed to an out-door 
temperature. 
“ I failed to ascertain in what situa- 
tion the eggs of the autumn brood are 
deposited, and am at a loss to divine by 
what means the spring brood is brought 
into existence. When I found the pups, 
October 18th, the locust-tree and our 
other forest trees had begun to shed 
their leaves, and before all of the brood 
appeared the tree was entirely denuded. 
They cannot appear, as a general thing, 
therefore, before the fall of the leaf, 
although some of them do, and those 
which remain in the leaves as pups are 
doubtless far removed from their food- 
plant by the winds when they do make 
their appearance. Do you think it is 
probable that the eggs of the autumn 
brood are deposited in the young buds? 
****** 
“ Having no books of reference treating 
of the tribe, I was of course entirely un- 
able to locate it, until a few weeks since, 
during a short visit to Philadelphia, l was 
able to consult hastily, at the Academy of 
Natural Sciences, a copy of your volume 
of the ‘Insecta Britannica.’ By care- 
fully comparing my representation of the 
neuration of this leaf-miner with the 
pterological delineations of that volume, 
I was at once enabled to refer it to the 
family Lithocolletidas, and then, turning 
to your remarks on the family, I satis- 
fied myself at once as to the correct- 
ness of this reference.” — (Breckeniudge 
Clemens, M.D., Easton , Pennsylvania ; 
December 12, 1857.) 
The drawings of the larva, pupa and 
mine sent by Dr. Clemens confirm, if 
confirmation were necessary, his judg- 
ment in referring the insect to the genus 
Lithocolletis, but whether the species be 
identical with Acaciella or distinct, it 
will be hazardous to decide till au op- 
portunity occurs of comparing the two 
insects. If the American species should 
be distinct, Dr. Clemens proposes for it 
the name of Robiniella. 
THE GRADUS. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE ‘INTELLI- 
GENCER.’ 
Sir, — I have no wish to discourage 
any attempts to diffuse knowledge, but 
it does seem to me that the propositions 
for an Entomological Gradus are based 
upon a fallacy. It is supposed that if 
persons knew the meaning of generic 
and specific names they would thereby 
learn something of the insects to which 
the names are applied. Now this would 
not follow; for, to say nothing of gene- 
ric names of which the derivation and 
meaning are unknown, those regularly 
compounded from the Greek have, for 
the most part, such general significations 
that no definite idea of the creatures 
ranged under them can be had. And 
by specific names the idea conveyed is 
still less precise, as far as regards the 
identification of species ; for we see such 
names as communis , vulyaris and fa- 
miliaris, all signifying the same thing, 
applied to different species in the same 
genus, and when the names are derived 
from persons, places or plants, the result 
is the same, as it would be very easy to 
show. In a word, names are not descrip- 
tions: Linnaeus expressly termed them 
“trivial names;” they are distinctive 
appellations, and nothing more. That 
the meaning of the names given to in- 
sects would be interesting, I do not 
attempt to deny, only the interest would 
be philological and not entomological. 
\Y ith regard to the pronunciation of 
insect-names, I think the best way would 
be to indicate the emphasis by a single 
accent placed immediately after the syl- 
lable on which stress should be laid, in 
the same manner as is done in Loudon’s 
‘ Hortus Britannicus,’ and a few general 
