Huxcerford: Nepid.i-: ix America. 437 



It seems scarcely necessary to mention that the color implied by 

 the name 7iigra has nothing to do with the case, for black coloration 

 occurs in all the species, due to one of two causes — either dark in- 

 crustations or deposits upon the integument, or dark discoloration 

 due to failure in drying out the specimens. Either of these causes 

 might account for a uniform dark or black color in a given series 

 of insects. 



There are other facts relative to the identity of these species 

 which will be presented under notes after the various descriptions, 

 to which the I'eader is referred for further evidence. Aside from the 

 points mentioned, the probability of our two commonest and wide- 

 spread species being first described is of itself very great. 



The list of the species of Ranatra now known from America north 

 of Mexico is as follows: 



Ranatra fusca P. B. 1805 = Ranatra americana Montd. 1910. 



Ranatra nigra H. S. 185^ ^ Ranatra protensa Montd. 1910. 



Ranatra quadridentata Stal 1861. 



Ranatra kirkaldyi Bueno 1905 and its variety hofjmanni, n. var. 



Ranatra brevicollis Montd. 1910. 



Ranatra buenoi, sp. new = Ranatra fusca Bueno and Mondt. in 

 part. 



Ranatra drakei, sp. new. 



Ranatra australis, sp. new. 



It will be noted that R. quadridentata Stal, completely submerged 

 in Van Duzee's catalogue under R. americana Montd., is restored. 

 Dr. F. H. Snow, in Trans. Kan. Acad. Sci., vol. XX, pt. 1, p. 153, 

 1906, w^as not writing about the species which Doctor Montandon 

 later described as R. americana, but another which we believe to be 

 R. quadridentata Stal, and should not have been synonymized by 

 Van Duzee. It will also be seen that R. annulipes Stal is omitted. 

 This R. annulipes Stal is a very distinct species and not to be mis- 

 taken for any the writer knows from our range. Doctor Montandon 

 has established, through the examination of types and type ma- 

 terial, that R. fabricii Guer. is the same as R. annulipes Stal. Fig- 

 ures of this species are given in this paper, because it has been cited 

 as coming from our range. 



The variety, edentata Montd., of R. americana Montd., is as- 

 sumed to be an americana with attenuated apical tooth on front 

 femur. Whether it should be recognized as a variety is questionable. 



The entire question of the correct names for the Ranatra was, as 

 the writer has stated, opened by the necessity of naming four species 



