178 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Feb., 



Type. — Homoeogamia mexicana Burmeister. 



Generic Characters. — Sexes dissimilar, but both with tegmina 

 developed. Tarsi without arolia. Males with the pronotuni 

 semicircular, sub-fusiform or pentagonous in outline; tegmina 

 elongate, at least two and a half times as long as the transverse 

 diameter of the pronotum. Females with the pronotum broad, 

 sub-fusiform in outline, the anterior margin more arcuate than 

 the posterior ;' tegmina comparatively short and not more than one 

 and a half times as long as the broad scoop-like pronotum; wings 

 minute. IVIedian and posterior tibiae with six or seven apical spurs. 

 Supra-anal plate of the male produced and distinctly bilobate, or pro- 

 duced and broadly emarginate. Supra-anal plate of the female 

 produced, broadly rounded, with a narrow median emargination. 



History. — The genus Homoeogamia was originally founded in 1838 

 by Burmeister as a subgenus of Hctcrogamia {=^ PolypJiaga Brulle). 

 It was based entirely on H. mexicana, and the distinguishing characters 

 were clistinctl}^ geographical — Heterogamia s. s. belonging to the Old 

 World, and Hotnocogamia to the New. In 1864, Saussure placed it 

 as a subgenus of Polyphaga, and located it in the "Polyphagiens," a 

 division of the " Nuditarses," Latindia being associated with it. The 

 same author described a species, H. hrasiliana, from Brazil, basing it 

 on a nymph. Brunner, in 1865, in his historic Systhne considered 

 the division that of a full genus, and placed it with Heterogamia in a 

 new family — the Heterogamida?. In 1868, in the Catalogue of the 

 BlattaricB in the British JMuseum, Walker erected the family Poly- 

 phagidse, in which Homoeogamia was placed. Saussure, in the Melanges, 

 published in 1869, placed Homoeogamia with Polyphaga in the "Poly- 

 phagiens," which he considered a division of the "Blattaires Mutiques 

 a Tarses nus." He here also described H. sinensis, a species from 

 northern China, which, as later shown, he has since removed from the 

 genus.- The same writer, in the Mission Scientifigue , published in 

 1870, considers the " Poly phagi ens " as a division of the ^'Nuditarses," 

 and Homoeogamia was here regarded as a subgenus of Polyphaga. 

 In 1871 Walker described a species, Polyphaga aqualis, which is prob- 

 ably a representative of the genus Homoeogamia, but it has not been 



^ This character also applies to the males of several species of the genus. 



- In the work above mentioned Saussure recognized the pecuhar position of 

 this species as he says: "Tlie presence of an arohum on the tarsi in tliis species 

 places it near Polyphaga {Heterogamia) ; nevertheless the appearance, the woolly 

 nature of the body, tlie widtli of the marginal field of the elytra, and the curva- 

 ture of the discoidal nervures adds much to the analogy with Homwogamia. 

 This species thus establishes a type between the two genera." 



