80 
Psyche 
[March 
THE TYPE FETISH 
By J. R. de la Torre-Bueno 
White Plains, N. Y. 
Professor Embrik Strand writes in Psyche, for Septem- 
ber, 1929, an extremely thought-provoking article under 
the title “Down with the Type Cult” 1 , which I translate as 
in my heading. Whether our personal opinions run with 
his or not, we must admit he discusses what is becoming an 
extremely serious matter in entomology. We have types 
ranging from dipteran ovaries to fragmentary parts of in- 
sects, microscopic mounts, and, of course, the whole insect. 
These are scattered to the four quarters of the globe, in 
museums and in private collections. In many instances, in- 
ternal evidence may point to certain specimens or to a 
series of specimens with which the author worked, but 
nothing on the specimens themselves shows that these were 
the ones from which the description is drawn up. Again, 
we face the condition that a type label may have been care- 
lessly lost or put on a wrong specimen ; or even removed or 
changed of set purpose. 
Dr. Strand’s idea of doing away with type specimens is 
not novel. Over twenty years ago, Dr. Verrill, the English 
dipterist, advocated the destruction of all types and the re- 
jection of all descriptions unintelligible without the type. 
I have always maintained that paper and ink are far more 
lasting than specimens; and while we today may have the 
use of the type material of our contemporaries, it does not 
follow that our successors will. And even where types are 
extant, it is difficult to have access to them: Institutions 
are justly averse to lending types, particularly when these 
types have far to travel to the borrower. The vicissitudes 
of a type start when it is taken out of its case and continue 
Wol. XXXVI, pp. 228-231. 
