SOMMERMAN AND PEARMAN: PSOCOPTERA (CORRODENTIA, COPEOGNATHA) 523 



appeared Denny's Monograpliia Anoplurorum Britanniae, in which many of the 

 species were described and illustrated. In 1875 came Giebel's Insecta Epizoa, a 

 still more important work. In 1880 Piaget's monumental Les PedicuUnes and its 

 supplement were published. There have been no comparable works since that 

 date. Beginning in the 1890 's the center of work on this group was transferred 

 to North America, with the various papers, some of them quite extensive, pub- 

 lished by Vernon L. Kellogg, the most important of these being published under 

 the auspices of the California Academy of Sciences. 



It must be noted that until recently the classification of the Mallophaga has 

 not been especially satisfactory. The earlier workers, including Kellogg, were 

 extremely conservative; also, they knew no more than other students of micro- 

 scopic insects about the proper preparation of material. Fortunately, specimens 

 of Mallophaga could be studied with somewhat greater facility than some of 

 these other groups even with inadequate preparations. After Kellogg, a number 

 of students of the group in various parts of the world began describing new 

 genera, with apparently little consideration of the work being done by others. 

 Some of these workers had access only to inadequate collections; also, the com- 

 petence of some of them may be seriously questioned. The result was that the 

 classification of the group fell into a distressing disorder, from which it is only 

 new beginning to emerge. 



The recent publication of a comprehensive catalogue of the Mallophaga by 

 Clay and Hopkins, in which the authors have attempted to clear up much of 

 the confusion in the synonymy of the genera, once more places the study of the 

 Mallophaga back on a reasonably smooth road to further development. Also 

 there should be mentioned the recent comprehensive treatment of the Mallo- 

 phaga of mammals by Dr. Fabio Werneck which will give future workers on 

 these species something sound to build upon. 



Resume 



Through the story of the study of these three groups runs a common thread — 

 the need of developing proper methods by which these insects can be studied. 

 That thread will be found to extend also through the story of many other groups 

 of microscopic insects. Not until the recognition of this need becomes wide- 

 spread and a knowledge of proper methods is more widely distributed will the 

 study of such groups attain its ultimate possilnlities of achievement. 



PSOCOPTERA (CORRODENTIA, COPEOGNATHA) 



K. M. SOM MERMAN AND J. V. PeARMAN 

 Orlando, Florida, and Aston Clinton, England, respectively 



In 1853 knowledge of psocids was meager, being contained in about thirty 



publications by European authors. Descriptions were inadequate and dealt with 



trivial superficialities. If allowance is made for synonymy, less than 50 species 



(in 7 genera) were known, including possibly 8 from the AVestern Hemisphere. 



