OF WASHINGTON. 



A. O. U. Code. He arrived at the conclusion that Blatta orien 

 talis Linnaeus is the type of the genus. But unfortunately the 

 author gives in his table of elimination the date of the removal of 

 orientalis from the genus Blait>t as 1846, when in fact it was 

 placed in the genus Steleopyga by Fischer in 1833,* and four 

 vears previous to that date into the genus Kakerlac by Latreille.f 

 The only other non-exotic species, lapponica, was removed from 

 Blatta to Ectobius by Westwood in 1835. { Thus, of the non- 

 exotic species, lapponica was last removed and is, therefore, the 

 type of Blatta as determined by the method of elimination when 

 properly applied to the non-exotic species only. 



Dr. Krauss, in his recent most valuable communication on the 

 nomenclature of the Orthoptera, also applies the method of elim 

 ination, but, unlike Rehn, considers all the species originally in 

 cluded under the genus, both exotic and non-exotic. By this 

 means he shows surinamensis to be the last removed, except 

 nivea, which was simultaneously removed, both being included in 

 Burmeister's genus Panchlora. Later, 1865,1 Brunner removed 

 surinamensis to his new subgenus Lettcophcea. This, reasons 

 Dr. Krauss, makes Leucophcea and Blatta synonymous, each 

 having surinamensis as the type species. 



Both of the above attempts at fixing the type of this genus, no 

 matter how well done or how satisfactory the results may be to 

 the respective authors, are, in the writer's opinion, wholly unnec 

 essary and fruitless. As a matter of fact the type of Blatta was 

 clearly designated many years ago. In 1807^" Latreille included 

 orientalis alone under the genus, and on this fact Dr. Krauss 

 bases the statement that orientalis was described as typical at 

 that date. But five years prior to that date** Latreille specified 

 orientalis as the example (example here obviously used in the 

 sense of type) of the genus Blatta. Then, in iSioft the same 

 author definitely designates orientalis as the type of Blatta, here 

 using the word type. Now this author, writing as he did at a 

 time before any of the original species had been removed from 

 the genus, certainly had the right to designate which of them 

 should constitute the generic type. A valid, non-exotic species, 

 and one originally placed in the genus, having been specifically 

 designated as the type, should never be changed, even by the one 

 so designating it. Otherwise there can obviously never be a sta- 



* Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc., vi, p. 366. 



f Cuvier's Regne Animal, V (Ins. ii), p. 175. 1829. 



I Stephen's Illustrations of British Entomology, Mandibulata, vi, p. 45. 



Zoologischen Anzeiger, xxx, p. 530, Aug., 1902. 



|| Nouveau Systeme des Blattaires, p. 278. 



^[ Genera Crustaceorum et Insectorum, iii, p. 83. 



**Histoire Naturelle, iii, p. 269, 1802. 



ft Consid. Crust. Arachn. et Insectes, p. 433. 



