﻿166 POMONA COLLEGE JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY 



is very apt to be a poor one, for the simple reason that it is often obscured by 

 the doubling or folding of the wings, and in case there were but a few speci- 

 mens available, one would be at a loss where to place the new species. All 

 the other characters presented are purely relative, and until diagnostic generic 

 characters can be found which are not mere relative proportions, the mean 

 average of which may easily be possessed by a species, no group of species 

 ought to be separated as a genus. If they are separated by such characters, 

 the inevitable result is confusion; it is scarcely scientific to have to "toss up" 

 to determine in which of two genera a certain species belongs. As an illus- 

 tration of such confusion, Leptothrips aspersus has been placed in three differ- 

 ent genera, and may yet end up in Liothrips where it rightfully belongs. 



Figure 69. Anthothrips variabilis 



Anthothrips variabilis n. sp. 



Average length 1.6 mm.; general color light brown to dark brown, occa- 

 sionally black. 



Head variable in form; usually very slightly longer than broad (Fig. 69 

 D), subrectangular, rounded somewhat anteriorly; occasionally the head is 



