112 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



ON THE GENUS LA MEN I A STAL. 



BY F. MUIR, H. S. P. A. STATION, HONOLULU. 



Stal founded the genus Lamenia in 1859 (Eugenics Resa Zoo., 

 277, PI. IV., f. 5), for caliginea from Tahiti, and the genus Herpis 

 in 1861 (K. Vet. Ak. Hanal., III., No. 6, p. 8), for fuscovittata 

 and four other species from Brazil; in 1866 in a footnote on 

 page 193 of Hemiptera Africana he sank Herpis and Lamenia. 

 Uhler in 1889 (Stand. Nat. Hist., II., 233), placed PcBciloptera 

 vulgaris Fitch into Lamenia and since then several North American 

 species have been placed in this genus, all congeneric with vulgaris. 

 Fowler's Cediisa funesta is congeneric with vulgaris and (according 

 to Mellchar, 1905, Wien. Ent. Zeit., 285), A ttalia = Herpis. 



Stal's figure of caliginea is very clear, and shows the narrow, 

 parallel-sided form of the tegmen with the subcosta and radia 

 amalgamated to near their apices, and the subcostal cell small, a 

 tegmen typical of Thyrocephalus Kirkaldy, whereas vulgaris and 

 its allies have the tegmen much broader, the subcosta and radia 

 separate from near the base and the subcostal cell large. For 

 these reasons I do not consider it advisable to keep vulgaris and 

 ■caliginea in the same genus. All the specimens I have seen from 

 Central and South America are congeneric with vulgaris so that 

 it appears best to place that species along with all its allies under 

 Herpis and to have Lamenia with its type only, or to place all the 

 eleven known species of Thyrocephalus under the latter genus. 



Cenchrea dorsalis appears to differ from Herpis in having no 

 subantennal keel across the gena, the antennal chamber being 

 ■entirely pronotal (Westwood's figure of the tegmen also shows 

 differences, which I do not like to emphasize until I can examine 

 a specimen) ; from Syntames it differs by the absence of a central 

 longitudinal keel on face, and from Basileocephalus and Phacio- 

 £ephalus by the presence of a transverse keel between vertex and face. 



OBITUARY. 

 Mr. L. E. Ricksecker, well-known collector of California 

 insects, died in San Diego in that State, January 30, 1913. He 

 was especially devoted to- the collection of Coleoptera, and dis- 

 tributed amongst his correspondents in the east many interesting 

 specimens. 



April, 1913 



