CYDNIDAE OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE — FROESCHNER 541 



reported that he was unable to separate signoreti from Berg's (1879) 

 Argentine species constridus] he further stated that Mulsant and 

 Key's French locality for theu' species had been due to a misinterpre- 

 tation of the abbreviated locality "Mont." on his specimen label. 

 He stated that this abbreviation stood for "Montevideo" and not 

 "Montpellier." In view of Signoret's explanation (and in spite of the 

 fact that he had given both names vahd standing in his "Revision") 

 and the fact that Mulsant and Key's description leaves no doubt 

 about the identity of their species with that of Berg's, one is forced 

 to consider Berg's name as a synonym, as has already been done by 

 Berg (1891, p. 171). Tominotus thus is available and must be con- 

 sidered in the study of nomenclature for forms of the Western Hemi- 

 sphere. 



But why replace the older, better Imown name Aethus of Dallas 

 with Tominotus? In redefining the genera, the start must be made 

 from the genotype. The genotype of Aethus Dallas (1851) is Cydnus 

 indicus Fabricius, subsequently designated by Van Duzee (1914, p. 

 378). It possesses a differentiated terminal osteolar process (fig. 99), 

 the shape of which is unlike that found in any species of cydnids found 

 in the Western Hemisphere. The terminal process in Aethus indicus 

 is almost semicircular with the convexity cephalad, a strong emargina- 

 tion in the transverse posterior margin and the surface in part pol- 

 ished. As thus restricted, Aethus appears to have a limited distribu- 

 tion chiefly in Asia; but as only limited extralimital material was avail- 

 able for study its range may be more extensive. 



Thus, our American forms, none of which is congeneric with 

 Aethus indicus, must take new generic names. After transferring 

 certain other species, those which belonged to the Aethus of American 

 authors (not Dallas) on the basis of a complete submarginal row of 

 setigerous punctures must take the name Tominotus Mulsant and 

 Key (1866) because that name antedated all other included generic 

 proposals, Trichocoris Uhler (1877) and Psectrocephalus Van Duzee 

 (1922), by several years. 



In Tominotus the vestiture arising from the submarginal row of 

 setigerous punctures on the head may be uniformly hairlike, or may 

 consist of a row of peglike setae with a few hairlike ones interspersed 

 A caution for interpreting this character already given in the intro- 

 duction to this study may be profitably repeated here: the burrowing 

 habit often results in the brealdng of the hairlike setae near their 

 bases, resulting in what appears to be a row of the peglike setae. 

 Although this vestiture character has not been used as a primary key 

 character in the present study, it is mentioned in the description of 

 each species and offers a usable recognition feature for certain groups 



