PSYCHE 
Vol. 57 
December, 1950 
No. 4> 
THE GENERIC NAMES FOR TABANIDAE (DIPTERA) 
PROPOSED BY ADOLFO LUTZ 1 
By G. B. Fairchild 2 
University of Minnesota 
Beginning in 1905, Dr. Adolfo Lutz published a considerable 
number of papers on South American Tabanidae, mainly the Brazil- 
ian fauna. He had evidently intended to monograph the fauna, and 
did treat the Pangoniinae, the Diachlorini and the genera Dichela- 
cera, Stibasoma and Acanthocera in a thorough way. His other 
publications on the family consisted mostly of local lists, descrip- 
tions of new species, and short papers outlining his views on the 
generic classification of the Neotropical species. 
In his papers of a monographic or revisional nature, Dr. Lutz 
appears to have well understood the rules governing zoological 
nomenclature, and new names appearing in these publications are 
for the most part validly proposed. In his papers on general classi- 
fication and in his local lists, however, which he seems to have con- 
sidered of a preliminary nature, it appears that he did not realize 
that the names he was using were then appearing for the first time 
and would have to be taken into consideration by subsequent stu- 
dents. In many cases these names were so casually proposed, either 
without adequate definition or without valid included species, and 
almost always without bibliographic reference, that it has proven 
very difficult to come to a decision on their validity. In other cases, 
it has been difficult to decide on the year in which a certain name, 
published as new on several occasions, was validated. 
: Paper No. 2455 of the Scientific Journal Series, Minnesota Agricultural 
Experiment Station, St. Paul 1, Minnesota. 
2 On leave of absence 1949-1950 from Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, 
Panama, Republic of Panama. 
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