LACE-BUG GENERA — DRAKE AND RUHOFF 7 



Miridae not included) of the world, Lethierry and Severin (1896, 

 pp. 4-26) recorded a total of only 50 genera and 317 species of Tingidae 

 for all five continents and the islands of the seas. Forty years later, 

 Drake and Poor (19.36a, p. 381) enumerated 52 genera from the 

 Western Hemisphere alone. The latter authors also stated that 424 

 species had been described from the Americas and estimated that 

 approximately 1,100 species were then characterized in the world. 

 Monte (1947) published a list (incomplete) of 99 tingid genera (in- 

 cluding synonyms) and their respective type species for the world. 



Two basic and monumental treatises have been written on the 

 family Tingidae. Horvath (1906c) published a very comprehensive 

 stud} r of the Tingidae of the Palearctic subregion, with original keys 

 to genera and species. He recognized 19 valid genera and 201 valid 

 species for the Palearctic subregion. Hurd (1946) published descrip- 

 tions and original keys to the 44 genera known to occur in North 

 America. This author gave the figure 424 as the number of known 

 species at that time inhabiting the Americas north of the Panama 

 Canal. 



Inasmuch as the foregoing papers dealt with land areas of various 

 extents, involving diverse biotic conditions and even overlapping 

 fauna! regions, the data are too disparate to trace growth and to 

 compare generic and specific populations in different faunal areas. 



In a lengthy paper dealing with the Rhynchota, Amyot (1845, 

 pp. 369-492; 1846, pp. 73-192) proposed a monomial system to 

 replace the binomial nomenclature as originally organized by Lin- 

 naeus (1758). This new system, mononymy, would classify animals 

 by means of a one-word taxon representing both genus and species in 

 lieu of the binary system of two words, one for genus and the other for 

 species. This monomial system of Amyot was never seriously con- 

 sidered by entomologists, nor recognized in the Zoological Code. 



Under Division in, Membranientes, Amyot (1846, pp. 175-192) 

 mononymized technical names for a number of species of tingids and 

 piesmatids. In the transition from the binomial to the monomial 

 system, he employed several well-known generic names and created 

 a number of new monomial names. Only one of the mononymic taxa 

 was created for a new tingid species, the others being erected for 

 well-known species of that time. This mononymic species, "Dic- 

 tyesthes," described by Amyot (1846, p. 181), has been cited by 

 Garbiglietti (1869, p. 275) as Dictyonota dictyesthes Amyot. The 

 publication of Garbiglietti (1869) validated D. dictyesthes as a specific 

 name and thus credit of authorship must be given to Garbiglietti 

 rather than to Amyot. 



In his "Nomenclator Zoologicus," Neave (1939-1950) wrongly 

 included the monomial names of species named or renamed by 



