172 



PSYCHE. 



(March, 1901 



of which he numbered 805 and the 

 female 806. The male has been lost 

 but the female, with her original number, 

 still remains and is intact, except for the 

 loss of the tip of one wing cover. In 

 color, it is bleached nearly white, so 

 that the length, — .10 of an inch — given 

 by Dr. Fitch, is all in the description 

 that can now be applied to it. 



Mr. Baker, in the first paper referred 

 to above, speaks of having " the original 

 Fitch type ".^ before him and pronounces 

 it the same as D. minimus of Osborn 

 (He should have said Osborn and Ball) 

 and proceeds to condone Prof. Osborn 

 by saying " Still a good description of the 

 genuine melsheimerii was much needed." 



I had with me type specimens of Z>. 

 tninitnus O&B and found by careful com- 

 parison that there could be no possibility 

 of its being the same as Fitch's melshei- 

 merii. Either the supposed type that 

 Mr. Baker studied in the collection of 

 the National Museum is unlike the type 

 that Dr. Fitch placed in the State Cabi- 

 net, or Mr. Baker is not familiar with 

 minimus. That minimus should occur 

 at all in the collection made by Dr. Fitcli 

 is very improbable as so good a collector 

 as Mr. Van Duzee has never taken it in 

 N. Y. and Dr. Fitch reported melshci- 

 merii'''- Common on grass." Farthermore, 

 mittimus seems to be distinctively a 

 western species and probably does not 

 occur east of the Mississippi. 



The eastern specimens of melshe'imerii 

 average smaller in size and lighter in 

 color than the western and the type 

 specimen, number 806, does not exceed 



a large specimen of minimus in length. 

 It is readily separated from the latter 

 species by its more robust form and by 

 the entire hind margin of the last ven- 

 tral segment of the female. In mittimus 

 the last ventral segment is moderately 

 produced and has upon its hind margin 

 two very distinct teeth as shown in the 

 accompanying figure (A) . 



A, under surface of the abdomen of Delto- 

 cefkahts mittimus, sliowing tlie produced 

 last ventral segment of the female with two 

 distinct teeth ; B, under surface of the abdo- 

 men of the female of D. melsheimerii show- 

 ing the hind margin of the last ventral seg- 

 ment entire and not produced; C, under 

 surface of the end of the abdomen in the 

 male of D. viehheimcrii ,' a", the large valve, 

 p, short podical plates. 



After a thorough study of the type, I 

 went into a grass pasture in the suburbs 

 of Albany and collected five females 

 and four males of a species of Deltoceph- 

 alus that I recognized at once to be 

 like the type and they also proved to be 

 identical with what Mr. Van Duzee had 

 sent me years ago from N. Y. as D. 

 melsheitttcrii. The differences in the 

 genitalia of the males of these two 

 species are even more striking than in 

 the females. 



