JOURNAL 



jOrfa ]9orh dinfomologiral Horipfg. 



Vol. XXVII. December, 1919. No. 4. 



A REVIEW OF OUR LOCAL SPECIES OF THE 



MEMBRACID GENUS OPHIDERMA FAIRM. 



(HEMIP.-HOMOP.). 



By Lewis B. Woodruff, 

 New York, X. Y. 



Notwithstanding the study which has been given to the Mem- 

 bracids, a study favored in large part by the attraction and interest 

 which is aroused by the grotesque forms of so many of its members 

 — bizarre is the descriptive term commonly and appropriately applied 

 to them — much confusion persists in respect to the generic and spe- 

 cific limitations of its components. Species have been transferred 

 back and forth from one genus to another., new genera erected, only 

 to be reduced, and many descriptions and figures published which, 

 because of insufficient detail and faulty delineation, or quite possibly 

 through lack of rediscovery, have thus far eluded identification. One 

 of the occasions for this confusion lies in the fact that often great 

 variability prevails within the limits of a single species both as to 

 color and form, giving rise to the description and naming of many 

 reputed species which on further study, and accumulation of greater 

 material, have to be sunk into synonymy. Quite possibly, too, hy- 

 bridization may be common, with resulting varieties which must add 

 to the perplexities confronting the taxonomist. For these reasons 

 among others such papers dealing with the subject as have been pub- 



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