Sept., I9I4-] Crampton: jMisuse of Terms.' 253 



scribed by Audouin; but he is not certain of this point. That Ham- 

 mond's surmise is incorrect, has aleady been demonstrated. 



Landacre, '02, incorrectly appHes the term paraptera to the Httle 

 ossicles npt (fig. 2) at the base of the elytra of the beetle Passalus, 

 and Newport, '39, misapplies the term parapteron to the sclerite sur 

 (fig. 2) in his figure of the thorax of the beetle "Hydrous," although 

 in his figures of the thorax of Sphinx and Ichneumon, he quite cor- 

 rectly refers to the tegulse as the paraptera. 



Emery, '00, designates the region prs (figs. 2 and 6) as the 

 " parattero del mesonoto," in the thorax of various ants. It is per- 

 haps superfluous to add that this usage is also incorrect. 



Escherich, '06, who reproduces Emery's figures of the thorax of 

 ants, terms the plate prs (figs. 2 and 6) the " proscutellum." The 

 designation proscutellum, however, should always denote the scutel- 

 lum of the prothorax (if such exists) so that it is necessary to change 

 the term proscutellum to prescutellum, in referring to the sclerite prs. 

 The latter term is evidently the one Escherich intended to use. 



The unfounded statement that MacLeay, '30, applied Audouin's 

 term parapteron to the tegul?e, is frequently made {c. g.. Jardine, '13, 

 page 156; Snodgrass, '0%, page 581; Packard, '98, page 89; and 

 others). It is difficult to understand how such careless statements 

 can be made, for AlacLeay, '30, did not call the tegulae " paraptera," 

 at all. He calls them " squamulse," and attributes this usage to 

 Latreille. Latreille, however, called them " pterygodes." Any one 

 who will take the trouble to read MacLeay's descriptions, and look at 

 his figures, will readily see that the sclerites which he designates as 

 the " paraptera " are not the teguLx at all. Thus in PoUstes, Mac- 

 Leav states that the mesothoracic plates (which he terms the parap- 

 sides) designated as pa in fig. 2 (of the, present paper) are possibly 

 the prothoracic paraptera pushed back out of place ! He gives no 

 reasons for this view. The plates which MacLeay designates as the 

 mesothoracic paraptera are the sclerites pas (fig. 2), one on either 

 side of the scutellum. The sclerites which he designates as the meta- 

 thoracic paraptera are the lateral portions of the entire metanotum, in 

 which the subregions have united to a greater or less extent, and 

 have then become divided into a median and two lateral regions (one 

 on either side) by the formation of secondary sutures, or those not 

 originally present. Thus, the only sclerites regarded as the " parap- 



