212 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, 'lO 



my classification in the hope of receiving criticisms and sug- 

 gestions which will help in perfecting it. I will be under great 

 obligations to all entomologists who will write me their views 

 both regarding the general idea and the detailed carrying out 

 of it as laid down in this essay. 



Before taking up the question of arrangement it should be 

 said that the name which should be used to designate the blister 

 beetles is Lyttidae. The reasons for this are evident. No one 

 with material before him from all parts of the world can escape 

 the conviction that the genus Lytta F. (Cantharis Aucct.), with 

 its allies, is the typical one of the family and the one from 

 which the student should start in his study of the phylogeny of 

 the whole group. The family name Meloidae is entirely in- 

 appropriate, as the genus Meloe L. is nearly as atypical as any 

 genus so far described. The long accepted family name Can- 

 tharidae already exists in the literature, and if we follow the 

 International Code of Zoological Nomenclature* we should, 

 on the substitution of Lytta F. for Cantharis Geoffr., regard 

 Lyttidae as ipse facto becoming the proper designation of the 

 family. Such terms as "Vesicants," etc., are to be considered 

 as having no nomenclatorial status whatever. Thus we have : 



Fam. Lyttidae, 



Type Genus LYTTA Fabricius (1775). 



Synn. Meloidae Auctt, 



Cantharidac Auctt. 



Various groups not belonging to the family have by various 

 authors been included in it. One of these (Cephaloon Newm. 

 and its allies) has been regarded until recently as being blister 

 beetles, but an examination of the larva of Cephaloon shows 

 that it has nothing to do with our family. In the case of the 

 true Lyttidae the usual difficulties of classification are greatly 

 enhanced by the wonderful effects of peculiar parasitic habits 

 evinced in the hypermetamorphosis of the earlier stages no 



*Art. 5. "The name of a family or sub-family is to be changed when 

 the name of its type genus is changed." 



