302 
MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 
mology. A child begins by hearing the names of a few of the 
common insect forms about him, and no sooner does he begin to get 
a little familiar with them than some new book comes out on the 
subject and he runs up against an entirely new nomenclature, either 
of genera or species, or both, which is well calculated to discourage 
the most ardent enthusiast. Better almost any name that shall per¬ 
manently stand for the species than this constant change. If authors 
were agreed among themselves one might conclude that there was 
some system to their madness, but when one author calls an insect 
Limenitis disippus , another Limenitis misippus , another Basilarchia 
disippus , and still another Basilarchia archippus, it is enough to 
bewilder and disgust the hungry aspirant for knowledge on the 
subject. Even the common names have stuck better in many in¬ 
stances than those given by the scientists, and one has often to resort 
to them to avoid confusion. Let us hope that order will eventually 
come out of all this chaos, and that those who tinker with the names 
and classifications may call a halt before they make a separate genus 
for every species, and the scientific names to each are more numer¬ 
ous than the legs of its caterpillars. In studying exotic insects, 
especially those from little-known lands, one is spared these changes 
of names to a great extent, for it is frequently our most common 
insects which have three or four scientific names. Let us aim to get 
these names anchored, and when once a name is well established to 
hold to it instead of following the caprice of each new writer who 
may have little more to attract attention than a renaming and re¬ 
classification of our familiar forms. To be able to glibly articulate 
long scientific names and to be familiar with the most recent classi¬ 
fications does not constitute a knowledge of natural history. A. 
thorough understanding of the habits of an animal learned through 
search and observation is of much more value than a knowledge of 
its most recent name, which may be a very temporary affair. 
One other native insect of this genus is Danais herenice. It is 
a rather plainly-colored insect, being yellowish brown, sometimes 
reddish brown, the wings being margined with wide bands of black 
in which are enclosed numerous small white spots. Several larger 
white spots adorn the outer portion of the upper wings. The under 
side is colored much like the upper, except that on the lower 
wings wide lines of black follow the veins. This insect is very 
abundant in Mexico, and extends its habitat up into Texas and 
Arizona. 
