254 TouRXAL Xew York Entomological Society. tVoi. xxii. 



tera," by MacLeay are those designated as pa and pas in fig. 2, as well 

 as the entire lateral region of the metanotum, so that the statement 

 that MacLeay, '30, referred to the tegulse as the paraptera is wholly 

 unfounded — although it would have been entirely correct for Mac- 

 Leay to have termed the tegulae paraptera, had he chosen to do so. It 

 is perhaps superfluous to add, that the sclerites which MacLeay 

 actually did designate by the term paraptera, were incorrectly 

 designated. 



With regard to the application of the term hypopteron, certain 

 writers (Smith, '06) would make it, together with the term parap- 

 teron, synonymous with tegula (fg of fig. 6). The term hypopteron, 

 however, means " tmdcr-the-wing," and is wholly inapplicable to the 

 tegula, which is situated above the wing. As originally used by its 

 author (Audouin, '20), the designation hypopteron was applied to the 

 sclerite hyp (fig. 3), for which it is a very appropriate designation. 

 It was only later, and due to a mistaken interpretation of the sclerites, 

 that Audouin, '24, included the region hyp together ith the tegulae, 

 under the designation parapteron, so that it would be perfectly logical 

 and appropriate to restrict the term hypopteron, to the sclerite hyp, 

 and to make the term parapteron synonymous with tegula. 



Snodgrass, '091,, figures the hypopteron {hyp fig. 3) in his illustra- 

 tions of the thoracic sclertites of the Coleoptera (Snodgrass, "09^, 

 figs. 106, 107, etc.) but does not designate it by any name, in the 

 Coleoptera. In his fig. 70, of the mesoplcuron of the grasshopper 

 Dissostcira, however, he designates a sclerite homologous with the 

 hypopteron, as the precpistcrnum. This is the only case in which 

 Snodgrass uses the term preepisternum correctly. For example, in 

 his figure 29, of the prothorax of the roach Byrsotria. the plate 

 designated as the " preepisternum,"' corresponds to the fusion product 

 of sclerites !pl and 1st (fig. 2, of the present paper). On the other 

 hand, in his figure 94. of the niesopleuron of the earwig Spongiphora. 

 he applies the term precpistcrnum to the plate //>/ (fig. 2, of this paper) 

 alone, and in his figure 35, of the mesothorax of the roach Ischnop- 

 fcra, he designates as tlie preepisternum, the plate aba (fig. 2) alone. 

 The term preepisternum was first used by Hopkins, '09, who correctly 

 applied it to the hypopteron {hyp, fig. 3) of the beetle Dcndroctonus. 

 As used by its author, the designation preepisternum would therefore 

 be synonymous with hypopteron. which should be applied to the 

 sclerite hyp (figs. 2 and 3) alone. 



