60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Feb., 



FIXATION OF SINGLE TYPE iLECTOTYPIC) SPECIMENS OF SPECIES OF 



AMERICAN OFvTHOPTERA. 1 



SECTION ONE. 

 BY JAMES A. G. REHN AND MORGAN HEBARD. 



The majority of present-day workers in systematic zoology are in 

 accord on matters tending toward fixity of specific names, one of the 

 most important of these being the limitation of the specific name to a 

 single type specimen in cases where the original author had extensive 

 series which he had considered typical, but of which no single type 

 individual was selected. It not infrequently happened in such 

 cases that two or more species were confused* by the author, and 

 the limitation of the name to one of the components is necessary for 

 intelligible work. 



In the distributional and taxonomic work on Orthoptera in which 

 the authors are engaged, the necessity for single type (lectotypic) 

 fixations has become imperative, and after due consideration and 

 examination of the type series and study of the context of the original 

 descriptions, we have made the following fixations. 



In the few cases where the specific names have already been 

 restricted or types already properly selected, such action has been 

 followed unreservedly unless the author restricting the name has ap- 

 plied it to a form not represented in the original cotypic series. In the 

 case of proper previous limitations of names we have selected types 

 in accord with such work. 



In the ensuing papers the species will be treated in groups, using 

 as divisions the titles of the various papers whose components are 

 considered in the subsequent pages. 



Although the selection of a single type was recommended by the 

 last International Entomological Congress, no rules have as yet been 

 adopted governing such selections. It seems to us to be obvious that 

 under the present conditions certain logical methods should be 

 followed in selecting the type, but not so rigidly that special cases 

 which are found should not receive special treatment. 



1 In papers where other than North American species are treated it has seemed 

 best for the unity of the work to fix such exotic types as well. 



