June, igog.J ToRRE BUENO : ThE GeNUS BuENOA. 75 



I. In 1904, in"Uber Notonectiden," * Kirkaldy separated the 

 genus Buenoa from Anisops, to contain the American species, distin- 

 guishable from the Old World forms by having /z£/^-jointed anterior 

 tarsi in the male. He lists 12 species as valid and reduces four to 

 synonymy (not including one apparent misidentification). One spe- 

 cies, however, is not listed but is mentioned in the text (p. 123), 

 this being Fieber's Anisops elegans. The actual number of species is, 

 however, much greater, as even counting synonyms, there are only 

 seven continental Biienoas noted for North America, whereas I am 

 familiar with five recognized species (excluding synonyms), and pos- 

 sess in addition some two or three undescribed forms from the west 

 and south. The described ^species known to me are the following : 



Buenoa albida Champion. Texas ; Mexico. 

 B. caritiata Champion. Mexico. 

 B. pallipes Fabricius. Mexico. 

 B. elegans Fieber. New Jersey. 



B. platycnemis Fieber. Nev/ York ; New Jersey ; Illinois. 

 To which must be added : B. viargaritacea Bueno hereafter 

 mentioned. 



II. When I first began to work on the waterbugs, I named some 

 by the fatally easy method of exclusion. If you know all the species 

 except one for a certain locality, why, the one that was new to you 

 must necessarily be the remaining species. Or, if only one species 

 was given for a specific region, why, the most abundant, and in fact, 

 the only one taken must be it. Accordingly, when I found a common 

 and abundant bug, I looked into Uhler's Check List, and there found 

 only one species of Anisops given as occurring in the Atlantic States ; 

 namely, Anisops piafycnemisY'ither. Now, whom should I follow, if 

 not our most distinguished hemipterist ? I promptly did so, to find 

 myself in good (if misled) company. Later, possession of Fieber's 

 " Rhynchotographieen " gave rise to many misgivings, even though 

 Uhler's f semi-popular description in the Standard Natural History 

 confirmed my first idea as to A. platycnemis. Subsequently I took, 

 although in small numbers, another species, which but served to ac- 

 centuate my previous doubts. Within the last year another local form 

 turned up to increase the problem. However, once a sufficiency of 

 material was in hand, the solution of the problem was simple enough. 



*W'ien. Ent. Zeit., XXIII, VII, 120 (Aug. 31, 1904). 

 t 1852, Abh. bohm. Ges. Wiss. (5), 7, pp. 1-64. 



