MORGAN HEBARD ■' i^ % 



{ JUL 22 1916 



THE GENUS CERATINOPTERA (ORTHOPTERA, BLAT- 

 TIDAE, PSEUDCMOPINAE) 



BY MORGAN HEBARD 



Recently, in studying certain species of North American 

 Blattidae, it has been found necessary to determine what species 

 should properly be referred to the genus Ceratinoptera. For- 

 tunately, the genotype C. picta and also nahua, genotype of Para- 

 ceratinoptera, are represented in the collections before us, andj 

 with these important species at hand, we are able, for the first 

 time in its history, to restrict the genus to reasonable bounds. 



CERATINOPTERA Brunner 

 1865. Ceratinoytera, Brunner, Nouv. Syst. Blatt., p. 75. 



Genotype.^ — Ceratinoptera picta Brunner, selected by Kirby, 

 1904. 



This genus, from the very time of the original description, has 

 been the repository of any species of the Pseudomopinae which 

 showed somewhat abbreviate but not truncate tegmina (at 

 least in the male sex), and which did not exhibit some striking 

 feature considered sufficient to warrant further generic distinc- 

 tion (such as found in Ariisopygia jocosicluna and other species). 

 The generic history given below compels the restriction of this 

 entity to the complex described by Saussure as Paraceratinop- 

 tera; to this belong the genotype, Ceratinoptera picta Brunner, 

 Ceratinoptera nahua (Saussure), a new species here described 

 and probably Ceratinoptera castanea Brunner. No material of 

 castanea being available, we have not discussed that species in the 

 present paper. Of the many other species which have been 

 referred to this genus, the vast majority represent forms having 

 reduced tegmina, belonging to other genera the recognized species 

 of which do not show this feature, or to genera yet undescribed. 

 The use of moderate tegminal reduction as a feature of the first 

 importance has brought about this unfortunate situation. 



Greater tegminal reduction, showing these organs truncate in 

 both sexes, has been built up into the present heterogeneous 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC, XLII. > 



