XV 
. NB. It has sometimes happened that such an author has misidenti- 
fied a previously described species; in this case, if it can be proved in- 
dubitably, then the type should be the describer’s misidentification , not the 
supposed species, unless the latter, rather than the former, apply to the 
generic diagnosis. Ex. The type of Corira is cited as C. striata (Linneus), 
but it has never been doubted that it is not the true linnean species. The 
type of that genus is, therefore, cited as “C. striata Geoffroy, not Linneus, 
= geoffroyi Leach. “ 
17. If a species is specially singled out at the inception of the genus, 
it will be the type. Ex. Lygaeus type valgus; Phantasmatocera type arborea. 
18. If only one species is mentioned, or redescribed; or if one species 
is described, while the others are all referred to it, or, secondarily, to one 
another, for comparison; the first is the type. Ex. Gastraulax H-S. was 
composed of two species, of which the second (thalassinus) was stated to be 
very similar to the first (torquatus). G. torquatus is therefore the type. 
NB. This, except at the inception of a genus, or for some reason pro- 
vided for in the rules, does not apply to purely faunistic works, where only 
a few of the known species are discussed. 
19. The type of a preoccupied genus will necessarily be the type of 
the substitution, unless expressly contradicted by the author of the latter. 
This has been criticized in detail by Bergroth!); my view of it is as follows: 
The genus Platycephala Laporte (1832) was preoccupied. Boisduval in 
1835 described Brachyplatys for vanikorensis which is not generically separable 
from the type of Platycephala. Westwood (1837) enumerates on p. 5 of his 
Catalogue, 16 species of Platycephala (which he synonymizes with Coptosoma, 
Thyreocoris Burm., Brachyplatys and Cilobocoris). On pp. 16—17 he describes 
2 new species of Plataspis and adds in a foot note, ‘“Platycephala Lap., 
genus Dipterorum Meigenii’’. 
Now it is evident that Plataspis was not a “new genus’, but a new 
name given to a previous conception (type metallica) and that Westwood was 
simply adding two new species to it. Plataspis is therefore a synonym of 
Brachyplatys and || Platycephala. The same remarks apply to Pachymerus and 
Pamera, as also to such genera as Aleria and Nealeria. The type of Pyrrhotes was 
fixed by Westwood as abdominalis and the genus is therefore a synonym of 
Leptocoris. Ectrychotes was expressly an “emendation”’ of Ectrichodia and there- 
fore takes the same type, viz: cruz. 
20. The first species is not, necessarily, the type, unless the author 
expressly states that he fixes his types in that manner. Ex. Westwood 
from 1839. 
- 21. The commonest or best known, species is not, necessarily, the type. 
NB. Some authors (Blanford, Stiles etc.) have sought to make lectularius 
the type of Cimex, resurrecting for that purpose an obsolescent dictum of 
Linneus in the “Philosophia botanica” *). I have sufficiently refuted this *), 
1) 1906 Wien. E. Z. XXV. 9—10. : : 
2) W. T. Blanford 1903 Nature LXIX. 199—201; 1904 op. cit. 464; 1905 Ento- 
mologist XXXVIII. 110. Reply by Kirkaldy 1904 Nature LXIX. 464; 1905 Kntomo- 
logist XXXVIII 76—78 and 304—6. Cf. also C. W. Stiles 1907 P. EK. S. Wash- 
ington VIII. 67—68. J. A. Allen 1905 Science (N. 8.) XXI. 428—33. 
: 8) 1905 Entom. XXXVIII. 77. 
