Subject: Nymphet? Or Larvalet?
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 22:14:21 EST

No wish to bug Nabokovians,  but a question demanding an  answer. 
 
       Why did Nabokov,  a  lepidopterist, call Lolita a nymphet?  
Lepidoptera do not have nymphs, they  have larvae.  
 
        Only ancient insects,  primitive insects if you will, such as the 
Plecoptera (stoneflies) and the  Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) have 
nymphs.  
 
         Should Lolita have  been a larvalet instead of a nymphet?  
 
         Or was VN thinking of her,  which I doubt, as a damselfly and thus a 
nymphet?  Please,  a  definitive entomological/etymological answer.
 
            RHB
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