414 Transactions of the Society. 



limited number of entomologists who took any interest in the 

 question of the classification of the Dermaptera. The reason is 

 not far to seek : the entire absence of figures, the employment 

 of a number of new characters under new and unfamiliar names, 

 which are nowhere explained, the author's ignorance of the 

 literature of the subject, and the rather obscure language which he 

 employed, together with the fact that he rendered untenable the 

 old make-shift system, which was only accepted by serious students 

 as a temporary convenience, but failed to set up a new one in its 

 place. 



The consequence is that most students of the Dermaptera treated 

 Verhoeff's work with a neglect that it did not deserve, entirely 

 through inability to understand it. I was myself profoundly dis- 

 couraged when I found that he had erected a new genus, Nesogast rella, 

 the only character^of which was the pin-hole through the elytra ! 

 I saw his type afterwards in Berlin ; it had been carded, but the 

 big hole made by a common pin was very evident. The specimen 

 was nothing more nor less than a female of the very common 

 Nesogaster amcenus Stal. Such errors, and the blunder in the use 

 of the name Gonolabis, " Burr et mihi,'" which I have exposed 

 elsewhere, led one to suppose that the whole work was of the 

 same quality, and by common accord Verhoeff was quietly 

 neglected. 



But the virtue in his work was at length proclaimed by his 

 keen countryman, Dr. Friedrich Zacher. Thanks to the free 

 access to Verhoeff's types and microscope slides, which were often 

 in very poor condition, Zacher was able to understand what 

 Verhoeff meant, so that he realized the great importance of his 

 compatriot's work ; at the same time, being a modern recruit to 

 the subject himself, he was not so likely to have his vision biassed 

 by the Nesogastrella and Gonolabis blunders. Zacher quite justi- 

 fiably calls Verhoeff's work " bahnbrechend " ; it has broken new 

 ground, and pointed out the new method. 



Verhoeff's work suffered from being premature, for the amount 

 of material available was then small. In 1911 Zacher brought out 

 the next step, " Studieniiber das System der Protodermapteren," * 

 a very important paper, explaining Verhoeff's work, carrying it a 

 good step farther, and above all illustrating it with a large number 

 of figures. Zacher's work has a double virtue ; it not only has 

 its own inherent goodness — that is, the actual original obser- 

 vations — but it is a key to Verhoeff, rendering his crabbed words 

 intelligible. 



For want of material Zacher was unable to do more than 

 sketch out a system in parts ; he has since supplemented the 

 original paper, and Borelli has added descriptions of the genitalia 



* Zool. Jahrb., xxx. Heft 4 (1911). 



