386 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



and furthermore Lamarck named lectulariiis as type two years 

 before Fabricius indicated rufipes as type of Cimex, so I cannot 

 see that there is any case for discussion. My copy of both Brtin- 

 nich and Lamarck are from the Kirkaldy library, and are annotated 

 by him, and he could soon have learned these facts had he tried. 



Family Capsidae. — It seems to be quite the vogue now to 

 follow Kirkaldy and call this family after the oldest genus, Miridce. 

 This Kirkaldy system is illogical to me as I have stated above, and 

 I would not revert to it did it not seem best to refute Reuter's 

 statement of 1910 that the name Miridce Brulle, 1835, has priority 

 over Capsidos Burm., 1835. In the first place every indication I 

 can discover of the date of these two works show that Burmeister's 

 appeared first, but that would not effect the present case as Brulle's 

 name was in the French form and was not latinized at all. If we 

 accept vulgar names, we must go back to Hahn's Wanzenartigen 

 Insecten, Vol. I, 1831, where we find the family called Mirides. 

 However, I think Dr. Horvath was perfectly right in discarding 

 all names, not given in the Latin form. By this system the name 

 Capsidce has clear priority and practically universal usage until 

 Kirkaldy devised his system for unstabilizing family nomenclature. 



Genus Salda Fabr. — This genus cannot be considered without 

 first locating Acanthia. Fabricius founded Acanthia in 1775 for 

 lectularius and its allies without indication of type. Latreille in 

 the "Precis," 1796, restricts Acanthia to those of Fabricius' species 

 which inhabit the borders of ponds and streams, but names no 

 species nor type. As it is impossible to name a type from such a 

 statement, his restriction has no value. In 1801 Lamarck identi- 

 fies Acanthia with Cimex and names lectularius as type. The next 

 year Latreille still clings to his delusion and describes genus Acanthia 

 for littoralis and zosterce Fabr. One year later Fabricius, perhaps 

 as a protest against Latreille's misuse of his genus, restricts Acanthia 

 to lectularius and hemipterus and indicates the former as its type. 

 At the same time he founds his genus Salda for the littoral forms 

 with zosterce as type. This disposition of these species by Fabricius 

 was perfectly valid, and I have so used them in my catalogue. 

 Recently Dr. Reuter has broken up genus Salda, very properly 

 restricting Salda to zosterce and its allies, but still retains Acanthia 

 for the littoral species with siltatoria Linn, as type. In accepting. 



