INTRODUCTION 



Thirty-five years have passed since the publication of the last complete 

 list of the Pyrrhocoridae, in the second volume of the "Catalogue General 

 des Hemipteres" by Lethierry and Severin. From that time until about 

 1912 this family received considerable attention from Hemipterists and nu- 

 merous species were described, principally by Breddin, Bergroth, Distant 

 and Schouteden. These were listed in Bergroth's second supplement to 

 the Lethierry and Severin Catalogue, which appeared in the Memoires de 

 la Societe Entomologique de Belgique in 1913. Since then, however, 

 entomologists have given scant attention to the Pyrrhocoridae. It is 

 my hope that renewed activity will follow the appearance of the present 

 Catalogue, with its index to the literature on the family. 



This Catalogue of the Pyrrhocoridae was essentially completed late in 

 1926. Since then I have not been actively associated with any form of 

 entomological endeavor, and it has not been possible for me to make a care- 

 ful record of the literature which has appeared in the last three years. The 

 citations I have included for 1926, 1927, and 1928 are limited, therefore, to 

 references taken from the "Zoological Record," and to the few papers that 

 have come to my personal attention. 



The references to the literature prior to 1926 are, I believe, reasonably 

 complete, insofar as they refer to the taxonomy, distribution, and biology 

 of the species. In some cases, notably Pyrrhocoris apterus, 1 have subjected 

 the list of citations to a careful scrutiny and have eliminated a number of 

 non-essential ones. Such omissions were restricted to the local lists which 

 seem to add little of real importance to our knowledge of distribution. It 

 should also be noted that in preparing this Catalogue I have made no 

 attempt to cite the Pyrrhocorid references in the special literature of 

 economic entomology. The few such references included are merely those 

 which I chanced upon in my search of the general literature on this family. 



Acknowledgments are due to several of my hemipterological confreres 

 for assistance in the preparation of the Catalogue: to Messrs. H. G. Barber 

 and J. R. de la Torre-Bueno, as also to the American Museum of Natural 

 History, for the privilege of utilizing their respective libraries, and Mr. 

 Barber has also very kindly examined the types of several of Kirkaldy's 

 species in the United States National Museum for me; to the late Dr. 

 C. L. Witheycombe, for information regarding the identity of several 

 species of American Dysdercus; to Mr. W. E. China, who has very gen- 

 erously advised me regarding the correct assignments of certain forms de- 

 scribed by Walker, Kirby, and Distant; and to Miss Elizabeth Sherman, 

 student in Smith College, who has undertaken the formal Bibliography 



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