1929] 
Common Names and Taxonomy 
109 
cigarette and Poof ! it came to earth. 
A common name is a common name and that is all. It is 
the vernacular name, the name of the people for a thing, in 
this case an insect. 
How simple! 
We have only to find out what all the common people 
everywhere call an insect and after that name write what all 
the taxonomists agree is the correct Latin name for the same 
insect, and thereafter all economic entomologists, who are 
neither common nor taxonomic or are both, as you choose, 
are constrained, never to depart from this combination ; un- 
less the Common Name Committee changes its mind or some 
taxonomist has the temerity to disagree with his colleagues. 
But seriously, it is essential that in applied entomology 
we have a well established vernacular name for each pest 
that will be associated with it in the minds of those in- 
terested in the pest from some nonacademic viewpoint. 
The layman will not even try to swallow Leptinotarsa 
decimlineata, nor can we foist upon him such pseudo- 
academic names as irrorate leafhopper. He does not know 
what irrorate means, and I venture to say that there may be 
some in this august gathering of mental collossi who do 
not know what that word means. 
Even more reasonable common names have failed of 
popular adoption. Certainly Colorado potato beetle is a nice 
name. It sounds nice, the insect is a beetle, it feeds on potato 
and it first attracted attention in Colorado, so we adopted 
the name. And what then ? Go over most of the country and 
you find that the Colorado potato beetle never even occurred 
there. No, their pest is the potato bug. 
All the Association of Economic Entomologists hopes to 
accomplish by the activities of its Committee on Nomen- 
clature is a reduction of vernacular names to a reasonable 
minimum for any given insect and to prevent the same com- 
mon name from being applied to more than one kind of 
insect. 
To acheive the last-mentioned object is not always pos- 
sible. For example, what was the apple leafhopper a few 
years ago is now several species of Jassidse, but a conscien- 
