302 



give (pp. 13-15) a full description of the family characters, a little modi- 

 lied from Le Conte's tirst descriptiou, but sustaining his views on the 

 systematic position of Platypsyllidce. 



In 1883, Alphonse Bonhoure (Ann, Soc. de France, 1883; Bull, des 

 Seances, p. cxxvi) exhibited drawings and specimens o{ Flatypsi/llus 

 castoris found in the Departement des Bouchcs-du Rlwne. 



In 1884, Edm. Beitter, in " PlatypsyUa castoris Kits, als Vertreter 

 einer ueuen europaischen Coleopteren-Familie" ( Wiener entoni. Zeit.^ 

 Ill, 1884, pp. 19-21 (gives a lengthy description of the species with spe- 

 cial regard to the sexual differences. He shows that the European insect 

 is not specifically distinct from the American form, but he does not ex- 

 press an opinion on the position of the.family among the Coleoptera. 



In the same jear Bonhoure (Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, 1884, pp. 143- 

 153) more fully records its discovery on Castor fiber taken in the Petit- 

 Ehone. It is a question whether this European beaver, now quite rare, 

 is distinct from ours. He gives a very good review of the subject, with 

 a plate of the most important details, after Horn, and he fully indorses 

 the coleopterological position of the insect. 



In the same year Ritsema {Tijdschrift voor Eniomologie, 1883-'84, 

 LXXXVI) refers to Bonhoure's discovery of Platypsylla in France, and 

 corrects Reitter in some unimiiortant details. 



In 1885, Reitter, in " Coleopterologisclie Noiizen,^^ XIII ( Weiner entom. 

 Zeit, Vol. IV, 1885, p. 274), answers Ritsema's criticism. 



In the same year. Dr. Friederich Brauer, in his masterly " Systema- 

 tischzoologische Studien " (Sitzb. der kais. Akad. der Wissensch., XCI, 

 p. 364), speaks of the relationship in the thoracic characters between 

 Mallophaga and Coleoptera as illustrated by Platypsyllus, by inference 

 admitting the Coleopterous nature of the latter, but recognizing that it 

 has Mallophagous affinities. 



In 1880 H. J. Kolbe, in his " Ueber die Stellung von Platypsyllus im 

 System" {Berliner entom. Zeitsch., XXX., 1880, pp. 103-105), discusses 

 the subject, without any new evidence, however. He concludes that 

 most of its characteristics relate it to the Corrodentia, and particularly 

 to the suborder Mallophaga, in which it has its closest kinship in Lio- 

 theidte. The remarkable tripartite mentum he thinks should not be 

 compared with the bipartite mentum of Lei)tinus, and calls attention to 

 the fact that in Ancistroua in Mallophaga it is also trilobed. 



The above are the more important papers on the subject, though 

 the insect has been referred by other authors to both Neuroptera and 

 Orthoptera. 



CHAHACTERS OF PLATYPSYLLUS. 



Where the characters of the imago have been so often described, it 

 is unnecessary to refer to them in detail, and I will only call attention 

 to the more striking structural features, and to some omissions by, or 

 differences between, previous authors. A glance at the illustrations 



