128 PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION 



Labia curvicauda, Burr, 1909, Derm. Ind. p. 118, fig. 38. 



Platylabia dimidiata, Dohrn, 1867, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xxviii. p. 348. 



Platylabia dimidiata, Bonn., 1895, Ann. Soc. Ent. Tr. p. 387 ; 1900, Forf. p. 74. 



Platylabia dimidiata, Borelli, 1907, Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (3), iii. p. 382. 



Platylabia guineensis, Dohrn, 1867, Stett. Ent. Zeit. xxviii. p. 348. 



Platylabia guineensis, Borm., 1900, Forf. p. 75. 



Platylabia dimidiata, Dohrn, var. guineensis, Dohrn, Borelli, 1907, 1. c. 



Platylabia earner unensis, Borg, 1904, Ark. f. Zool. i. p. 570, Fab. 26, fig. 4 {$). 



Platylabia dimidiata, Dohrn, var. camerunensis, Borg, Borelli, 1907, 1. c. 



De Bormans treated P. guineensis as a synonym of P. dimidiata in his paper on the 

 Dermaptera of the Seychelles in 1895, noting that some of his specimens had the pronotum 

 and legs yellow, that the larger specimens approached the P. dimidiata form, the smaller 

 ones P. guineensis, while others formed the transition : he adds that only the distance 

 between the originally quoted localities led Dohrn to separate them, the intermediate 

 localities not yet having been discovered. But he separated them again in his monograph 

 in 1900, noting that the former only differed in the stronger pubescence and slightly 

 different forceps of the male. Borg in 1904 described as new, under the name 

 P. camerunensis, a form having the forceps of the male more feebly arcuate, with an 

 obtuse tooth rather than a rectangular dilatation, and the almost equally long third and 

 fourth antennal segments. In 1907 Borelli reduced P. guineensis Dohrn and P. camerunensis 

 Borg to the rank of varieties. 



In a recent work on the Dermaptera of India (1910), I have sunk all these names as 

 synonyms of Labia curvicauda Motsch., as I can find no characters which satisfy me as 

 to their specific rank, although I admit that I have not examined the types of any of these 

 species. 



But I have examined a great many specimens from various localities, and continually 

 find all extremes together from one place. Thus, in this collection, there are fourteen 

 males, in some of which the forceps are almost straight, but feebly dilated at the base, 

 whereas in others, these organs are strongly dilated to form an almost rectangular lobe at 

 the base, and then abruptly bowed inwards almost at a right angle ; in others, again, they 

 are strongly arcuate. There are gradations between every form. 



Most of the specimens are more or less pubescent, and in some the pronotum is yellow, 

 whereas in most it is blackish brown. 



This confirms my previously formed opinion that all these forms are mere variations 

 of one and the same species, and I shall continue to regard them as mere varieties of 

 Labia curvicauda. 



It is a small species which might be easily transported artificially, and I see in its 

 extremely wide distribution no objection to my opinion in favour of their identity ; it 

 appears to be as abundant in West Africa as in Ceylon, Burma, Madagascar, Java and in 

 my own collection I possess specimens from Brazil and the West Indies. 



Localities. Seychelles. Mahe : near Morne Blanc, from leaf-bases of growing Steven- 

 sonia palm, 1 $, IX— X. 1908. Long Island, 2 $, 1 $, 12—22. VII. 1908. Silhouette: 

 Pointe Etienne, low coconut-planted country near the coast, 3 ?, 17. IX. 1908 ; near 



