154 INSECUTOR INSCITI/t MENSTRUUS 



lutely impossible to subdivide the species other than by the individual 

 characteristics of the preparation. The thrips was evidently introduced 

 with its food plant from the far east. 



It was observed as early as 1887 by Mr. E. A. Schwarz, at Key 

 West, Florida ; at Matanzas, Pinar del Rio, and Havana, in Cuba ; and 

 in Porto Rico. Along the Prado, in Havana, where the tall figs have 

 been the principal shade trees since their introduction many years ago by 

 the Spanish, he found this insect a serious pest. Infested trees had a 

 decidedly grayish cast, for neeurly every leaf was at least partially involved 

 in the galls, which are formed by a longitudinal roll or fold in the leaf. 



Good figures of the various forms of these galls are given by Houard 

 and by Leeuwen-Reijnvaan, loc. cit. 



A NOTE ON SOME AMERICAN SIMULlIDiC 



By FREDERICK KNAB 



Roubaud, in 1906, described a new Simulium from Venezuela 

 under the name Simulium exiguum} In 1909 Dr. A. Lutz described 

 another species from the State of Sao Paulo (Brazil), under the same 

 name.^ It is the accepted procedure to propose a new name for a homo- 

 nym and in 1911 Surcouf and Gonzalez Rincones, in a compilation on 

 the South American blood-sucking Dlptera, proposed the name Simulium 

 minutum for the 5. exiguum of Lutz.^ This name, however, is also pre- 

 occupied, having been given to a North American species by Lugger in 

 1 896,* While no description was given by Lugger of his S. minutum, 

 there is a figure and this gives the name validity. Recent developments 

 make it desirable that the two species named 5. exiguum should now be 

 put on a definite basis. 



The U. S. National Museum has long been in possession of a small 

 series of Roubaud's S. exiguum from his type material, and the writer 

 has identified as conspecific with these some specimens taken by Messrs. 

 Schwarz and Barber in eastern Guatemala. These latter were taken 4 

 miles off Livingston, March 20, 1906, and at Cacao, Trece Aguas, Alta 

 Vera Paz, April 9 and 12, 1906. Now the Simulium exiguum of 

 Lutz has also come to hand. Prof. F. W. Urich has sent me for iden- 



'BuU. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris. 1906, p. 108. 



^Mem. Inst. Osw. Cruz. Vol. I, No. 2. 1909, pp. 132, 141. 



^Essai sur les Dipteres vuln^rants du Venezuela, 191 1, p. 290. 



* Second Ann. Repl. Entom. . . . Minnesota, 1896, pp. 175, 176, fig. 143. 



