24 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



THE GENERIC NAMES VATES AND THEOCLYTES. 



BY JAMES A. G. REHN, PHILADELPHIA. 



Recently the writer made the statement (Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., 

 XXVII., p. 87) that the generic name Theoclytes was a synonym of Vates, 

 the latter being the older by one year. A further examination has shown 

 that the matter should have been examined closer. Three generic names 

 are involved— Vates, Burmeister ; Theoclytes, Serville, and Pseudovates, 

 Saussure — the included species of each being as follows : 



Vates, Burmeister. 

 V. cnemidotus, Burmeister = subfoliata, Stoll. 



V. orbits, Illiger. ) 



ir 0t ,, \ Zoolea macroptera, Stoll. 



V macropterus, Stoll. | r 



Theoclytes, Serville. 



T.foliata, Licht. = subfoliata, Stoll. 



T. undata, Fabricius = Popa undata, Fabricius. 



T. chlorophcea, Blanchard. 



Pseudovates, Saussure. 



P. tolteca, Saussure. 



The type of the genus Vates is therefore subfoliata, Stoll., the other 

 two included species (synonymous) having been removed by Serville to 

 his new genus, Zoolea, in 1839. As the species subfoliata was used by 

 Burmeister (and is by elimination the type of the genus), it must be 

 barred from consideration in the genus in which it was placed by 

 Serville. The second species, undata, having been removed to another 

 genus, the third, chlorophcea, must stand as the type. The last genus, 

 Pseudovates, of Saussure, was based simply on tolteca, which is congeneric 

 with Vates, and therefore the two are synonymous, unless the two types 

 can be separated subgenerically, in which case the name Pseudovates is 

 available for one. The revised generic names stand as in the following 

 table : 



Vates, Burmeister. Type, V. subfoliata, Stoll. 



Pseudovates, Saussure. 



Theoclytes, Serville. Type, T. chlorophcea, Blanchard. 



While a few authors have followed almost the same pattern as this, 

 the general tendency has been to distort the names by placing them to 

 suit their fancy or their particular system of classification. 



