JOXJBNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY 5 



only the species which had been described by Linngens (1758) 

 as Iclmeumou gigas, and which Linnseus had subsequently 

 placed in Sirex. That he had done so, however, was unknown 

 to Geoffroy, whose conception of Urocerus was doubtless equiv- 

 alent to that of Sirex by Linnaeus. While Geoffroy does not 

 name any species of Urocerus, he describes one and only one, 

 and by a definite bibliographical reference and a figure identi- 

 fies it with Ichneumon gigas of Linnaeus. The genus Urocerus 

 is therefore monobasic, with Ichneumon gigas as tji^e. This 

 interiiretation is confirmed liy Latreille who in 1810 definitely 

 designed gigas as type. Fourcroy (1875) was the first to 

 actually use a specific name in association with Urocerus, gigas 

 being the name of the species that he then included. From 

 that time until the end of the nineteenth century authors have 

 used, some Sirex, others Urocerus, but always with the same 

 meaning. During the past fifteen years, as a result of the work 

 of Ashmead and Konow, Sirex has been generally recognized 

 as the correct name and Urocerus as a synonym, and this is the 

 status indicated by Rohwer (1911a). 



It had long been recognized that there were three species — 

 groups within the old genus Sirex (excluding Tremex, which 

 will be mentioned later), one containing gigas and its allies, 

 another juvencus and its allies, and the third spectrum and its 

 allies. For the latter Costa (1895) proposed the subgeneric 

 name Xeris and Konow (1896) for the jiiveucus group the sub- 

 generic name Paururus. These were shortly, and very appro- 

 priately, raised to generic rank. Xeris contained the single 

 species spectrum which is therefore its type. The type of 

 Paururus is juvi'ncus by designation of Rohwer (1911a). Sirex 

 as thus restricted in the sense of Konow, Ashmead, and Rohwer 

 was with the supposition voiced by Rohwer (1911a) that gigas 

 was its type. 



That, then, up to the present is the status of the old genus 



Sirex, gigas and its allies retained in it, juvencus and allies 



placed in Paururus, spectrum and allies in Xeris. 



But unfortunately Curtis (1829) definitely designated juven- 

 cus as the type of Sirex, a fact known to Rohwer, and over- 



