H. C. FALL. 101 



REVISION OF THE 8, i 119 IS I III 1 1» i; OF 

 BOREAL AMERICA. 



BY H. C. FALL. 



Iii the Summer of 1897 there appeared in the Revue d'Entomo- 

 logie a paper entitled " Essai de Classification General des Lath- 

 ridiidse, Avec le Catalogue Systematique et alphabetique de toutes 

 les especes du Globe — par le R. P. fr. Mie Jos. Belon O. P." This 

 paper, which, by the way, did not come to hand till the following 

 year, briefly summarizes the results of the author's study of these 

 insects extending over a period of some twenty-five years, and is, 

 from a generic and bibliographic standpoint, of the greatest value 

 to every student of the family. It is, however, of little or no ser- 

 vice to the American student or collector as an aid to the identifica- 

 tion of his own species, since, with few exceptions, the author's ac- 

 quaintance with the North American fauna is too limited to permit 

 the incorporation of our species into his tables. 



The following pages are the result of an effort to do, in some de- 

 gree, for our fauna that which the labors of Reitter and Belon have 

 accomplished in Europe, and although much had been done toward 

 this end before the receipt of the essay above mentioned, the 

 progress of the work was greatly stimulated, and its completion 

 hastened thereby. 



In addition to the difficulties always incident to the examination 

 and description of such minute forms, there have been three others 

 which have combined to discourage the attentions of systematists to 

 the Lathridiidse. First, the small size and frequently monotonous 

 aspect of the insects themselves have caused them to be neglected 

 by collectors; again, the fact that so many species are widely dis- 

 tributed through the agency of commerce, would require a more 

 extended acquaintance with exotic species than is usually necessan ; 

 and finally, the impossibility of recognizing from the description the 

 greater part of the numerous species of Mannerheim and Motschul- 

 sky. The first two difficulties named are not serious, but the last is 

 practically insurmountable. The descriptions of both these authors 

 touch only the more obvious superficial characters, neglecting almost 

 entirely the under surface of the body, which is of great importance, 

 as well as the finer details of structure, including sexual characters. 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC. XXVI. (13*) NOVEMBER, 1899. 



