321 



NOTES ON SOME MALLOPHAGAN GENERIC NAMES. 



P.V T. Harvev Johnston, M.A., D.Sc, anu Launcelot 



Hakkisok. 



A cci-taiii ninnuiit of (.•( infusion lias crept into the generic nomen- 

 clature' of tlu> Insects belonging to the order Mallophaga. Many 

 of the errors have been corrected by Neumann( 1906), but there 

 are, howexei', a few important points in which we differ from the 

 well known French parasitologist. In order that the matters 

 i-eferred to by us might be more easily understood, a very brief 

 sketch of tlie previous work on certain generic names in this group 

 is necessarv. 



The difference between " biting Hce" and " sucking Hce " was 

 first recognised by De Geer( 1778), who founded the genus Ricinus 

 to include tii(> mandibulate forms, the old name Pediculus being 

 retained for the true lice, whose affinities are rather with the 

 Hemiptera than with any other order. Hermann( 1 804 ), knowing 

 iiirinxs to be preoccupied in Uotany, proposed Xirnius as a sub- 

 stitute. Nitzsch, in ISjS, published a vexy important work on 

 ])arasitic Insecta, including the Mallophaga, but took no notice of 

 pi('\ ioiis attempts at classification, beyond placing the earlier 

 generic names as synonyms of his own. He divided the order 

 into two families, to which, however, he did not assign names, 

 these being first given, in 18.'32, by Bui'meister. Each family 

 consisted of two genera, one parasitic on mammals and one on 

 bir<ls. The liird-infesting genera were subdivided by Nitzsch into 

 a nuiuijei- of subgenera as follows : — 



i\im. Pkiloi'TERid.e: ( 1 ) T richodectes; (2) Philopterus(suhgenera: 

 Docojihoriis, Xirmns, Lipe^irus, Goniodes). 



Fam. LiornKio.K: ( 1 \Gyrnpus; {1)Liotheum{^vCb^en.: Colpocehpa- 

 luni, Menvjxiii, Tr'uiotini. Enreum^ Lrpmobothrion, Fhysostomum). 



In the case of the two subdivided genera, all species were left 

 in the original genus in each case, but were gi'ouped under the 



