Eeply to Dr. Bergroth etc. :-303 



are not only at variance with eacli other, but even the dimen- 

 sions clifFer in eacli ease, proving that they were drawn up frora 

 three diiferent specimens, if not from three distinct species. 

 StäTs last P. strumo.ta , of ISGO seems to be a species closely 

 allied to Ox7/p/eiira Poh/doru.'i W'älk. St AI describes it at some 

 length, but not a word is said as to whether the lateral angles 

 of the thorax are tipped with brown, or not. Althongh this is 

 perhaps nniniportant in itself, it happens to be a point expressly 

 mentioned by Fabricius in his somewhat brief description 

 of the original inseet Whatever the true F. strumosa, may be 

 (and I think that theFabrician description cannot apply to 

 F. Afzdii nor to F. aeren), I am not prepared to admit that 

 a man whose own work has been proved to be so misleading 

 as that of Stäl, had any right to demand that Walker's 

 work should be declared to be nonexistent ; or has any claim 

 to be regarded as a speeially trustworthy authority by "com- 

 petent Hemipterists" as one of them (?) lately put it. 



Many of Stäl's descriptions of species are much worse 

 than the average of Walker's, sometimes cosisting only of 

 two or three lines, and quite unrecognisable ; nor do I always 

 find his longer descriptions sufficiently definite to allow his 

 species to be readily identified. Stäl's descriptions are constantly 

 quoted with doubt by Entomologists who have not examined 

 his types ; and in the case of so unreliable an author, I should 

 not be inclined to attach too much authority even to these. 



Dr. B e r g r 1 h makes another general statement , viz 

 that many of my species are "placed in wrong (sometimes ex- 

 clusively American) genera". I presume he means genera as 

 restricted by S t a 1 ; but he specifies no instances, and offers no 

 evidence to show that Stäl was correct in his use of the ge- 

 neric names in question whatever they may have been. 



While blaming me for placing Cinghalese species in (alle- 

 ged) American genera. Dr. Bergroth, rather inconsequently, 

 tinds fault with me for not having recognised that my Cin- 

 ghalese genus Fonnicoris was identical with Stäl's Caffrarian 

 genus Fidichius. Let him prove this by figuring Stäl's inseet. 

 I figured nearly all my new genera and a large proportion of 

 my new species ; and it is absurd to say that they "will ever 

 remain enigmas tili they have been examined by an Hemi- 

 pterist". On his own showing Dr. Bergroth has already suc- 



Wiener Entomologieche Zeitung, XI. Jahrg., 10. Heft (25. December 1892). 



2a* 



