404 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Nov., '07 



THE DECTICINAE (A GROUP OF ORTHOPTERA) OF NORTH* AMERICA. By An- 

 drew Nelson Caudell. Proc. U. S. National Museum, XXXII, pp. 

 285-410, ninety-four figures. 



The interesting paper bearing the above title can justly be considered 

 one of the most important recent contributions to systematic North 

 American Orthopterology, based as it is on the examination of a great 

 amount of type material, as well as a series of specimens of the group 

 far in excess of that examined by any previous student of the Decticinae 

 of our continent. At best a difficult and puzzling group, the American 

 forms of the Decticinse present in several cases problems which are more 

 than usually abstruse, and we believe the present work solves these 

 problems much more satisfactorily than any thing which has preceded 

 it. 



The author recognizes twenty genera, fifty-nine species and ten varie- 

 ties, of which four genera, twenty-one species and seven varieties are 

 described as new. The character of the armature of the anterior tibise, 

 which was an important character in Scudder's key to the group pub- 

 lished a decade ago, is said to be most unreliable, and the cerci of 

 the male are found to furnish valuable characters. 



While the new forms described in the paper have as usual an interest 

 to the worker in this field, the synonymy of some of the older species 

 is of even greater interest, backed up as the work is in most cases by 

 the examination of types, and for that reason specific references in the 

 following brief resume are limited to the status of some of the older 

 species. 



Aglaothora.r is a new genus created for Tropizaspis orata Scudder 

 and two allied species ; Xcduba Walker is used in place of Tropizaspis, 

 Walker's genus being the same, as recently shown by Kirby, while in- 

 teresting field notes are added on Neduba carinata.. Rehnia is a new 

 genus for Rehnia victoriae and spinosa, large forms from Guerrero, 

 Mexico and Texas respectively, Zacycloptera is a new genus for Z. afri- 

 pcunis from Nevada, characterized among other things by the extraor- 

 dinarily short and broad wings. True Drymadusa not being found in 

 America, a new genus Anoplodnsa is created for Drymadusa arizonensis 

 Rehn, which figures in two typographical errors as arigonesis? Evidence 

 is submitted to show that Engoniaspis B runner was based on in- 

 dividuals of Atlanticus Scudder. Cacoptcris ephippiata Scudder is 

 shown to be an Eremopedes and the same as E. unicolor which it re- 

 places, while Eremopedes popeana Scudder and Cockerell is shown to 

 be a synonym of E. scudderi. Eremopedes balli Caudell is shown to 

 have been based on individuals of Stipator stci'cnsonn as well as those 

 of the form to which the name is restricted. The species Plagiostira 

 alb of as data is found to be an Eremopedes and P. gracile Rehn is con- 

 sidered synonymous. 



The work on the genus Stipator is particularly revolutionary, the 

 three "species" americanus, haldemanii and cragini are considered 

 identical and by a lapsus calami americanus Saussure is used as the 



