364 A uuals Entomological Society oj America [Vol. XI, 



num" in Dissosteira. The term "prepectus" is much preferable 

 to "pre-episternum" however, since "pectus" is the term for 

 the united pleural and sternal regions; and "pre-pectus" is 

 therefore a very appropriate designation for the anterior mar- 

 ginal region of the . pleural and sternal regions, so that the 

 designation prepectus has been retained in the present paper 

 rather than the designation " pre-episternum " or the designa- 

 tion "hypopteron" which was originally applied to this region 

 in the Coleoptera by Audouin (see Crampton, 1914b). 



Comstock and Kellogg, 1902, (p. 22) have proposed the sur- 

 prising view that the sclerite "pr2" of Figs. 1 and 2 (which 

 represents the anterior marginal prepectus of the mesothorax is 

 the "sternellum of the prothorax,'' and they would homologize 

 it with the mesothoracic lobes ''U" and "I2" of Fig. 2, which 

 they regard as the "widely separated halves of the sternellum 

 of the mesothorax" (p. 24). These in turn, they homologize 

 with the metathoracic sclerites "st" of Fig. 2, which they refer 

 to on page 24 as "the two halves of the sternellum of the 

 metathorax . . . widely separated, each being situated near 

 the base of the leg." If one takes into consideration such 

 "landmarks" as the f ureal pits "f" however, it will be seen 

 that it is impossible to homologize the regions "pro" or "I2" 

 with "st" in Fig. 2. Comstock and Kellogg restrict the term 

 "sternum" to the region in front of the lobes. 



In his Figs. 197 and 198 of the sternal region of Acridiiim, 

 Berlese 1909 gives some very astonishing interpretation of the 

 sclerites. Thus in the mesothorax, he restricts the term 

 "sterno" (/. e., sternum) to the marginal region "pro" (Fig. 2) 

 alone, and designates all the remainder of the mesosternum 

 {i. e., "bso" and "lo" of Fig. 2) as the "sternello" {i. e., ster- 

 nellum). In the metathorax, however, he calls practically the 

 entire metasternum the "sterno" and designates the first 

 abdominal sternum as the "sternello" of the metathorax. In 

 fact, Berlese's interpretations of many of the sclerites in his 

 figures of the thorax of different insects are so incorrect as to 

 greatly detract from the value of his book as a basis for research, 

 although its monumental size and wide scope have placed it 

 among the most important of the reference works in Entomology. 



