88 Psyche [April 



NOTES ON SOME GENERA OF BLATTID^E. 



By a. N. Caudell. 

 U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C. 



The genus Steleopyga was established by Fischer von Waldheim 

 in 1833 ^ with three included species, orientalis, americana and 

 trichoprocta, the last a new species and the first two, while not 

 so listed, are known to be the Blatta orientalis of Linnaeus and 

 the Blatta americana of the same author. Now the type of 

 Steleopyga must be one of the three above mentioned originally 

 included species. The first of the originally included species, 

 orientalis, is not eligible as it was designated as the type of Blatta 

 by Latreille in 1810. ^ To date, so far as I know, orientalis is 

 the only one of the originally included species that has been desig- 

 nated as type of Steleopyga. ^ The type is therefore as yet undesig- 

 nated. The second originally included species, americana, has 

 long been the designated type of Periplaneta, thus eliminating 

 it from consideration as the type of Steleopyga. The third and last 

 of the originally included species, trichoprocta, becomes therefore 

 the type of Steleopyga. 



Blatta aegyptica Linnaeus, the type species of the genus Poly- 

 phaga of Brulle, has as a synonym the Steleopyga trichoprocta 

 of Fischer, shown above to be the type of Steleopyga. Thus Poly- 

 phaga Brulle and Steleopyga Fischer, having synonymous species 

 as types, are themselves synonymous. Polyphaga therefore falls 

 as a synonym of Steleopyga, being the more recent by two years. 

 2 Blatt., p. 30 (1907), designates Blatta rhombifolia Stoll as type 

 of Stylopyga but it is not an originally included species of that genus. 



In 1846'* Fischer introduced a different spelling of his genus 

 Steleopyga, spelling it Stylopyga, crediting it to himself, quoting 

 the reference to its original proposal in 1833 and including but 

 a single species, Blatta orientalis Linnaeus, which is figured. This 

 is obviouslj^ but a different spelling, or an emendation, oi Steleopyga 

 but it has recently been used as a distinct genus by Mr. Shelford, ' 



> Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moacou, vol. vi, p. 356, 366 (1833). 



' Consid. Crust., Arach. & Ina., p. 246. 



' Shelford, Sjostedt's Expedit. Kilim. Meru &c., 17, Orth. 



* Orth. Russie, p. 68. 



' Genera Insectorum, Faac. 109, p. 14 (1910). 



