154 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. loi 



REVIEW OF LITERATURE 



Latreille (1796) was the first to propose the genus Geotrupes in the 

 Scarabaeidae, not placing, at that time, any species in the genus. 

 Two years later Fabricius (1798) again proposed the name Geotrupes 

 with 65 included species, but used the name with an entirely different 

 connotation than did Latreille. Latreille (1802, 1804) repudiated the 

 Fabrician application of the name and listed some species that he 

 believed should be included in the genus, and it has been his concept, 

 and not that of Fabricius, that has been followed by subsequent 

 authors. 



Recently, Potts (1948, 1951) has raised the question of the validity 

 of the acceptance of G. stercorarius Linne as type of the genus, for it 

 was not included in the Fabrician list of species in 1798. I believe, 

 however, as did Latreille (1802), that the Geotrupes of Fabricius was 

 not intended to be that of Latreille and is therefore a primary 

 homonym, invalidating the Fabrician list for genotype selection in 

 this case and leaving G. stercorarius Linne as type of the genus. 



This problem has been more fully discussed by Townes and Howden 

 (1952) and has been referred to the International Commission of 

 Zoological Nomenclature. It is still under consideration by the 

 Commission. 



The erection of the subfamily (or family) Geotrupinae was credited 

 to Latreille (1804). Following Latreille there were a number of more 

 or less comprehensive taxonomic works on the subfamily which in- 

 cluded the tribes Bolboceratini, Geotrupini, and Lethrini. Little of 

 this work, however, dealt even sparingly with North American forms. 

 The first comprehensive paper on North and Central American species 

 was a monograph by Jekel (1865) that dealt solely with the tribe 

 Geotrupini. This paper incited considerable interest and Horn 

 (1868, pp. 313-322) published what is essentially a supplement to 

 this work, commenting on synonymy and pointing out varieties 

 within some of the species. He followed this in 1870 (pp. 48-50) with 

 a key to the other North American genera, exclusive of Geotrupes, for 

 which he subsequently published a key (1880, pp. 144-145). The 

 information on the Central American Geotrupinae was assembled by 

 Bates (1887), and one year later Blanchard (1888) published the most 

 recent comprehensive work on the North American species in the 

 genus Geotrupes. Bradley (1944) published a key to the species of 

 Geotrupes as given by Blanchard, but without any consideration of 

 synonymy or undescribed species. 



The information that had been rapidly accumulating before 1900 

 was finally brought together and greatly augmented by a series of 

 extensive papers, worldwide in scope, by Boucomont. In 1902, in 

 Wytsman's "Genera Insectorum," he set forth the genera and listed 



