Hungerford: Nepid.k in America. 447 



Bueno. Even after making due allowances for "artist's license," 

 it is not conceivable tliat the careful artist illustrating Palisot's spe- 

 cies could have been looking upon R. fusca Bueno. The eyes of R. 

 fiisca Bueno are strikingly large, the anterior femora very slender, 

 and the middle and hind tibia? much larger in proportion to their 

 femora than in Ranatra fusca P. B. 



Doctor Montandon (Bui. Soc. Sci. Bucharest, XIX, 1910), who 

 also has examined Palisot's figure, says in effect regarding it: ". . . 

 When one considers only the essential details for the characteristics 

 of a form, such as the proportional length of the legs and append- 

 ages, one recognizes without difficulty its short and very robust an- 

 terior femora, its very little developed posterior legs, and its ap- 

 pendages shorter than the abdomen . . ." 



He was led into error by assuming the figure to be a great en- 

 largement of Bueno's R. kirkaldyi, which cannot be true according 

 to the facts elsewhere presented in this paper. Doctor Montandon 

 says that his R. americana is readily distinguished by the shape of 

 the prothorax, and indeed he is correct. The posterior enlarged part 

 is plump and then narrows to a slender neck, then widens again in 

 front. Any student with much experience with American Ranatra 

 will recognize this characteristic at once (see Palisot's figure repro- 

 duced on plate XLIX, figure 1). Compare it with the photographs 

 of our other species. Palisot's insect was broad and large; our only 

 species comparable to it is R. americana, which is as large, some- 

 times a trifle larger. The anterior portion of prothorax is about 

 one and one-half times the swollen posterior portion; so it is in R. 

 americana Montd. (in R. fusca Bueno [= R. buenoi, sp. new] the 

 anterior part is about twice the posterior part). The legs are short; 

 so with R. americana Montd. The large ratio of length of tarsus to 

 the tibia, 1 to 5+ (in R. fusca Bueno, 1 to 6+), shows similarity; 

 also the hind tibia is a little longer than the femur, but not as much 

 as in R. fusca Bueno. The broad anterior femora agree with R. 

 americana, but the apical tooth is not shown. This, however, is a 

 character which all students of this group realize could be overlooked 

 readily. Sometimes the space in front of the tooth is filled with 

 debris, obscuring the tooth; sometimes the tooth itself is much re- 

 duced. Doctor Montandon has a specimen from Philadelphia and 

 another from Texas which lack the tooth and which he designates 

 under the name R. americana var. edentula. In many of the speci- 

 mens the tooth, therefore, is not marked and must have been over- 

 looked by Palisot's artist. The caudal filaments are comparatively 



