252 JouRNAi. Xew ^'ork Entomological Society. tVoi. xxii. 



restricting" the term parapteron to the Icgula, and insist upon desig- 

 nating other sclerites by this term— a course of procedure which 

 unnecessarily complicates matters, and merely serves to heighten an 

 already sufficiently disconcerting confusion in the application of mor- 

 phological terminology. 



Snodgrass, 08, terms the plate aba (fig. 2) the "first or anterior 

 parapterum."' and designates the plate pba (fig. 2) as the "second, or 

 posterior parapterum." Later, Snodgrass ('opb) likewise includes 

 the plates sa (Fig. 2) under the general designation paraptera, term- 

 ing them the " epimeral paraptera." In a lengthy footnote to pages 

 20 and 21 of his " Anatomy of the Honey-Bee," Snodgrass, 'lOa, seeks 

 to justify this usage of the term parapteron, on the ground that (in 

 his opinion) Audouin, '24, referred to the plates aba and pba in his 

 definitions of the parapteron, and that this term should be extended to 

 include the subalar plates sa (fig. 2) as well. 



The only reason given by Snodgrass for thus arbitrarily applying 

 the terms paraptera to the wrong plates, is the incorrect statement that 

 Audouin had these plates in mind when he described the paraptera in 

 the passages quoted above. That this supposition is absolutely wrong, 

 has already been demonstrated, and Snodgrass's charge that . . . 

 " modern writers such as Packard and Folsom who make the term 

 paraptera synonymous with tegulae are certainly wrong" (Snodgrass, 

 'lOa footnote to page 21) was evidently made without consulting all of 

 the available evidence, else so keen an observer as he would never 

 have committed such an obvious error. 



The incorrect application of the term parapteron to the little plates 

 ■ under tlie wing, and at its base, is apparently traceable to Lowne, 

 '90, who designates the plate aba (figs. 2 and 5) as the parapteron. 

 Hewitt, '70, who accepts Lowne's interpretations in most instances, 

 designates this plate as the " paraptcrm." ajjparentlv meaning to call 

 it the parapteron. According to Snodgrass, Comstock regards one 

 of the basalar sclerites (aba or pba) as the parapteron, but I have 

 been unable to verify this statement. Rerlese, 'o6-'o9, applies the 

 term " parattcro " (1. c, parapteron) to the sclerite sa (fig. 2), but all 

 of these usages are incorrect. 



()lher incorrect a])plications of tlie designation ])ara])ter()n. are as 

 follows. Hammond, '81, applies the term parapteron to the sclerite 

 acs (figs. 2 and 5), suggesting that it may be the " paraptere " de- 



