Dr. C. Stal on the BntisJi Museum Catalogue of Homoptera. 477 



was again described by Scrville in the ' Histoire Naturelle des 

 Orthopteres,' p. 443, who instituted a new genus for its reception — 

 Thlihoscelus. There appears to be no doubt that the two authors 

 had the same insect in view : this is partly shown by the expression 

 of Fabricius, " Thorax segmentis tribiis," which accords with the 

 description of Serville, who says, " Disque du pro thorax ayant deux 

 sUlons transverses asscz distincts." If this character can be relied on, 

 it would show that they had not our species before them ; for the 

 Chloroccelus Tanana has only one transverse furrow to the prothorax. 

 This, however, is the only positive point of difference I can de- 

 tect in the lengthy characters given by Serville. Fabricius gives 

 "America" as the locality for his insect; Serville states that his 

 specimen came from Brazil. The TJdiboscelus camellifolla of the 

 British Museum is a North American insect. The generic characters 

 of Thlihoscelus given by Serville suit well our insect in every point, 

 except that they do not inchide the great convexity of the elytra. 

 He mentions their great breadth and obtuseness, and the bent direc- 

 tion of the longitudinal nei"vure (as well as that of the corresponding 

 ners'ures of the wings) ; but these points do not enable me to decide, 

 in the absence of express allusion to the striking character of their 

 great convexity. It was necessaiy to give our insect a name in 

 order to record the interesting facts relating to its structure and 

 habits*, and therefore there was no remedy but to give it a new one. 



XXXVI. — Notes on the British Museum Catalogue of Homoptera. 

 By C. Stal, Ph.D., Stockholm. 



I HAVE lately been occupied in making some synonjmical notes upon 

 the species desciibed by Mr. "Walker in the British Museum Catalogue 

 of Homopterous Insects. I am proposing to publish them. As a 

 preface to these notes I offer this paper, in which I desire to rnake 

 some remarks upon the scientific value of these and other works 

 which are published as descriptive catalogues of Homoptera. 



The numerous papers of Mr. AValker upon nearly all orders of 

 insects have akeady received their verdict from the most eminent 

 Continental entomologists who have made different orders their 

 special study. Concerning the papers upon Homoptera, an order of 

 insects unhappily having very few students, and still fewer who 

 have to study added knowledge, there have only hitherto been pub- 



* These are described in a narrative of my travels which is now nearly ready 

 for publication. 



2m2 



