8 INSECUTOR INSCITI^ MENSTRUUS 



Type and paratype b in Iconnicoff collection ; paratypes a 

 and c in collection of the United States National Museum. 

 Cat. No. 2i;32], U. S. Nat. Mus. 



Sermyle sp. 



Two 9 nymphs, one without date and one taken Decem- 

 ber 13, 1906. Both by Iconnicoff. 



These specimens are not in good condition and this, to- 

 gether with their immaturity, makes an attempt at a specific 

 determination inadvisable. The legs are lobate and the 

 thorax and abdomen are furnished with lateral expansions. 

 The head is armed on the occiput with a pair of flattened 

 hornlike projections. 



The type of Sermyle by designation of both Rehn, Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 51 (1904), and Kirby, Syn. Cat. 

 Orth., vol. i, p. 345 (1904), is the Ceroys mexicanus of Saus- 

 sure. Brunner, Die Ins. Fam. der Phasmiden, p. 315 

 (1907), places this species in his new genus Ocnophila and, 

 on page 333 of the same work, indicates without comment 

 that Stal, the author of Sermyle, misidentified this species, 

 and he described what he considers Stal really has as a new 

 species, praetermissus. But it is unimportant whether Stal 

 made a misidentification or not as mexicanus, having been 

 properly designated as the type of Sermyle, is the type 

 according to the rules of the Entomological Code and by the 

 recent decision of the International Commission of Zool- 

 ogical Nomenclature to the effect that the misidentification 

 of a species by the describer of a genus does not affect the 

 eligibility of that species as a genotype. Thus the genus 

 Ocnophila Brunner is a synonym of Sermyle Stal unless it 

 proves to be composite, in which case the name can be used 

 for those species not congeneric with mexicanus. And it 

 seems very likely that there are two generic groups com- 

 ]:)rised in the species treated under this generic name by 

 Brunner. This is indicated by the fact that many forms in- 

 cluded here have the metatarsus of the anterior tarsi as long 

 as the rest of the segments together while others have this 

 segment but one-half the combined lengths of the others. 



