INTRODUCTION 



In cataloging the Membracidae it has not been deemed advisable to 

 attempt an arrangement which would indicate relationships beyond the 

 subfamilies except in the Smiliinae in which subfamily the genera are 

 grouped into tribes. Such an arrangement could probably be made for 

 a few other groups but our present knowledge of the phylogeny and tax- 

 onomy of most of the genera and species is so meager that to attempt it 

 for the entire family would make for confusion rather than assistance. 

 The genera and their species within the subfamilies and tribes are therefore 

 arranged in alphabetical order. 



Since the first object of the catalogue is to show history and synonymy, 

 all references are chronological. We believe that the synonymy represents 

 the most recent conclusions of homopterists but the author alone is re- 

 sponsible for errors since in many cases his conclusions have been quite 

 different from those of other authors. It is hoped that the arrangement 

 will facilitate ease of reference and that no citations have been omitted 

 which are necessary to make clear the bibliographical history. 



Abbreviations of references are of course necessary but it is believed that 

 these abbreviations will be for the most part entirely sufficient. Even if this 

 is not the case, the complete title and publication is given in the bib- 

 liography. Many classical papers are better known to hemipterists by title 

 than by the journals in which they were published. In such cases the title 

 has been used in the reference, e.g. "Stal, Bid. Memb. Kan." rather than 

 "Stal, Oef. Kongl. Vet. Akad. Forh. XXVI: 250.", "Fairmaire, Rev. 

 Memb." rather than "Fairmaire, Ann. Ent. Soc. France IV: 235", "Van- 

 Duzee, Stud. N. A. Memb." rather than "VanDuzee, Bull. Buff. Soc. Nat. 

 Sci.IX:50". 



Each species is recorded under each genus in which it has ever been 

 placed, with a reference to the correct location. Thus all known synonyms 

 are cross-indexed and, in addition, all are included in the general index. 

 The different font of type used to indicate synonyms should prevent con- 

 fusion in this arrangement. 



The nature of the more important references is indicated by abbrevia- 

 tions in parentheses, e.g. "(econ.)," "(biol.)," "(anat.)," "(cat.)," 

 "(distr.)," etc., which should be self-explanatory. 



Locality references are arranged as far as possible in a geographical 

 sequence, adjacent localities being placed together. The unit for the lo- 

 cality has been made the state, district, or province. It would be mani- 

 festly impractical, for example, to record all of the localities in New York 

 State in which certain common species have been taken. However, in cases 

 in which the definite localities given in original descriptions or subsequent 



