BARBADOS-ANTIGUA REPORTS 37 
even though Horvath has synonymized them. Furthermore, 
all records of M. mulsanti, except the original one, are to be 
suspected and to be discarded, at least for the time being. 
Here is the writer’s obiter dictum on aquatic Hemiptera in 
general. It is far from wise, of course, for a writer to lay stress 
on any one idea, for it is likely to give rise to notions as to the 
poise of the stresser. But I here and now say that my insist- 
ence on structure rather than color for descriptive purposes 
rests on the difficulty of unravelling the snarl of such groups 
as the genus Buenoa, for instance. Take, for example, the four 
new species described in Biologia Centrali Americana. They 
are described by color, except for three or four variable struc- 
tural characters, like impressions in the pronotum, common to 
several species; or distance between the eyes, a secondary sex- 
ual character; or length, which is variable within the species, 
and which may refer to more than one species, anyhow. I 
have before me hundreds of Buenoa and Anisops as I write. 
All have the same sordid white or yellowish glassy, transparent, 
more or less iridescent wing-covers—pearly, as they are so just- 
ly called. All have more or less—and variable—black and 
yellow markings in the thorax and scutellum. Of course, they 
differ structurally, but such things are not mentioned in the 
specific description. So when we have three or four forms of 
about the same size (within the specific limits), although we can 
indeed separate them structurally, which of the four, is, say, 
albidus, according to the description? One considers the dis- 
tribution and hazards a guess. It is probably right on distribu- 
tion and general considerations, but it is searcely scientific. All 
one can do is to hope for the best. It is possible to declare it 
a new species, but there is always the uncertainty as to its real 
status; and why add to synonymy, already overloaded? No 
identification of aquatic Hemiptera may at present be accepted 
without question, except in those forms which have been worked 
over of late years monographically for limited groups, and in 
which authors have come to clean-cut conclusions. As to others, 
like this family and many others of the water-bugs, we have 
many descriptions, but no comprehensive work, and no work 
based on structure pure and simple. The species in these 
families in the Eastern United States have been controlled and 
