McAtee — Cercopidae near Washington, D. C. 173 



L. quadrangularis Say. — Common; dates of collection range from June 



15 to October 5; P. I. 

 L. angulifera Uhler. — The only record for this southern Coastal Plain 



species is Four-mile Run, Va., May 31, 1914, W. L- McAtee. 



Clastoptera Germar. 



The classification and nomenclature of this genus is much in need of 

 revision. The principal basis for the existing conception of the group is 

 Dr. E. D. Ball's 1895 paper. 1 This essay was prepared at a time when 

 the proper differentiation of subspecies and varieties was of no moment 

 among entomologists and when the niceties of nomenclature, also, were 

 little observed. No one is more aware of its faults than its author and 

 it is to be hoped Dr. Ball can find time to give us a revised classification 

 not only of this genus but of the whole family. In the present paper, 

 therefore, only such changes are made as seem necessary to rational treat- 

 ment of the local species. 



These changes relate to the following forms: 



Clastoptera proteus var nigra Ball. 2 Van Duzee has pointed out that 

 this name is preoccupied by C. nigra Germar, and synonymizes it with C. 

 pini Fitch. 3 However, our specimens which have been examined by Dr. 

 Ball and pronounced his var. nigra certainly are not pini Fitch (our identi- 

 fication verified by Ball), but a distinct variety, if not species, which is here 

 given a new name. 



Clastoptera xanthocephala var. glauca Heidemann. According to Article 

 25a of the International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature (further con- 

 strued in Opinion 1) and previously long accepted practise among zoologists, 

 the name glauca as used by Heidemann 4 cannot be considered a nomen 

 nudum as done by Van Duzee, 5 because it is accompanied by an illustra- 

 tion. The glaucousness referred to by Ball and subsequent describers is 

 only an effect produced by the pallor and reflections from the polished 

 surface, which latter character is common also to the dark variety. The 

 real distinction of var. glauca is the pale color. 



Clastoptera pini Fitch. Ball classed this form with obtusa and Van 

 Duzee treats it as a variety of proteus, but to the writer it seems a dis- 

 tinct species, characterized by the less inflated face which is always pale, 

 the more bluntly rounded vertex, and by the more numerous transverse 

 wrinkles on the pronotum. 



« A Study of the Genus Clastoptera, Proc. Iowa Ac. Sci. (1895), 1896, pp. 182-193, 

 pis. 11-14. 



2 Op. cit., p. 187. 



3 Bui. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci., Vol. 10, 1912, p. 509; Catalogue of Hemiptera of 

 America, 1917, p. 520. 



* Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., Vol. IV, No. 4, pp. 399-402, pi. 6. 

 ' Catalogue, 1917, p. 519. 



