THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 75.] SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1858. [Price 1 d. 
M I A R I A. 
A fortnight ago we referred to the 
attempt of Haworth to impose uni- 
form terminations upon the Noetuae, 
whereby our pleasant little friend Eu- 
clidia Mi became dignified by the 
title of Miina. The readers of ‘ Peter 
Simple ’ will remember Mr. Chucks 
and his horror of monosyllabic names, 
and no doubt if Mi entertained similar 
feelings it must have chuckled vastly 
at the “elegant termination” appended 
to its name. Last week we alluded 
to a somewhat similar attempt on the 
part of Boisduval to compel the Geo- 
metra to assume a uniform termina- 
tion of aria, and we mentioned how, 
in carrying out this idea, Prunata 
came in contact with the already ex- 
isting Prunaria, and thence came to 
grief. But we had not space then to 
speak of the still harder fate of “ The 
Green Carpet” ( Miaria ), so named in 
the year 1776 by the authors of the 
‘ Wiener Verzeichuiss.’ This having 
already an aria termination might have 
supposed that it was “all serene,” but, 
alas! no; Linna3us, prior to 1 776, had 
given to another insect the name of 
Miata ; this now becomes Miaria , 
and, instead of ceding to the claims 
of the already - existing Miaria , it 
rudely pushes it on one side, for, 
though with the Boisduvalian termi- 
nation, it still maintains to rank as 
a name as old as Linnaeus, and the 
“Green Carpet” is left to console it- 
self with the next oldest name of 
Pectinitaria of Fuessly. 
Let us hear M. Guenee on this sub- 
ject: “ M. Boisduval, in his last ‘In- 
dex,’ has undertaken a general reform 
of the names of the Phalenites, giving 
them all a uniform termination. This 
change, rejected by M. Lederer, ad- 
mitted by M. Herrich-Schaffer, is spread- 
ing amongst us, owing to the numerous 
entomological amateurs, whose whole 
library consists of a catalogue, which 
they follow blindly. M. Boisduval in 
demolishing one inconvenience, created 
another; henceforth, all names ending 
alike, there was no distinction between 
Ocellala and Ocellaria, Prunaria and 
Prunata [ Miata and Miaria ], &c., so 
that it became necessary to create new 
names for some of the Phalenites which 
had long been known. I know it may 
be said that this similarity of names 
is an inconvenience ; but why should 
we not have a Prunaria and a Prunata 
in two very different genera of the 
PhaUniles , when in one genus of the 
Nolodonlidre , side by side, we see a 
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