30 



ilil i 



il|i with perfect tegmina but rudimentary wings, viz., pedestiis Bori. 



'*' and (lecipiens Gene^; the former is albipennis Meg., and neither 



of them can be generically separated from Forficula Linn. 

 ''' j That genus, it is true, is very large, and contains species differ- 



Ill' ing to a niucli greater extent than usual from one another, some 



species having, for instance, the middle pair of legs much closer 

 Uj, to the front legs than others ; but there are no grounds for sep- 



I ■ arating albipennis from decipiens ; and the latter species is alto- 



gether similar to auricularia (the type of Forficula) except in the 

 brevity of the wings, a feature of great variability even within 

 species in Derinaptera generally. Apterygida, then, having no 

 raison d'etre, must fall before Forficula. There is also an earlier 

 generic name, Apterygia (Latr. Moll., 1825). 



BRACHYLABIS.* 



1864. Dohrn, Stett. Ent. Zeit.. xxv, 292, proposes this name for the 



folio win r species; maurltaaica Luc, marltima Bon., anyuUfera 



(from Guinea), chitenxis Blanch., and modesta Gene. 



b|l The only character given common to both sexes, by which to dis- 



*■ tinguish this genus from his Forcinella (= Anisolabis) is the lateral 



plication of the second and third segments of the abdomen, which is 



wanting in the species grouped by him under Forcinella. In other 



respects, as the author acknowledges, it altogether agrees (volkom- 



men iibereinstimmend) with that group; and he further adds, that 



this plication is sometimes very indistinct in the species of Brachy- 



abis, especially on the second segment. The males of Brachylabis 



are also stated to be peculiar in having the posterior borders of the 



fourth and following abdominal segments angular at the sides, and 



produced to a point; the females possess it to a less degree, so that 



when the plications are absent it is not always possible to determine 



into which genus a species should fall. 



There is scarcely a genus of Forficulariae in which the lateral plica- 

 tions of the second and third abdominal segments are not either dis- 

 tinctly present in all the species, or else totally absent ; it is this fea- 

 ture, doubtless, which has led Dohrn to separate, as he has done, his 

 two groups, Brachylabis and Forcinella; but in martVma, the type of 

 his Forcinella (afterwards placed by him in Bracliylabis!), we find 

 some individuals in which the plications are tolerably distinct, Avhile 



1 Westwood says, " three species are described," but the above are the only two. 



