STUDIES IN PHILIPPINE JASSOIDEA: III, THE STENOCOTID>E 

 OF THE PHILIPPINES 



■ By C. P. Baker 

 {From the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines, Los 



Banos, P. I.) 



POUE TEXT FIGURES 



The genus Signoretia is as unique among the Jassoidea of the 

 Oriental Region as Megophthalmus and Ulopa are among those 

 of the Palsearctic Region. The type of the genus, S. malaya 

 Stal, from Malacca, was described in 1855, and first placed in 

 the genus Thamnotettix, from which Stal removed it in 1858 

 to a position near Paropia (Megophthalmus) . Atkinson prop- 

 erly followed this suggestion^ and placed it in the "Subfamily 

 Paropina Fieber," but most authors have appended Signoretia to 

 the Tettigoniellidas, although it is entirely outside of this 

 family in its essential characters. In 1903 Melichar ^ described 

 a new species, Signoretia gratiosa; Distant ^ made this the type 

 of a new genus, Preta, which has scarcely more than the value 

 of a subgenus. Melichar * also described from Ceylon a new 

 genus with one species, Pythamus dealbatus, evidently related to 

 Signoretia. Distant ^ added two new species to Signoretia: S. 

 aureola, from Burma, and S. greeni, from Ceylon. Finally, 

 Schmidt " added a new species, S. sumatrana, from Sumatra. 



SimJlar difficulties have been encountered in the location of 

 the Australian Stenocotinse, which have usually been appended 

 to the Ledridse on account of the reduction in armature of the 

 hind tibiae, although in other characters they show slight relation- 

 ship to the true Ledridse. As a matter of fact the armature of the 

 legs in the true ledrids is widely variable and has never been care- 

 fully studied nor figured. Single character separations have pro- 

 duced many very unnatural results in the taxonomy of the jassoid 

 insects. Some ancient errors of statement regarding the arma- 

 ture of the posterior tibiae in certain jassoid groups, that must 



'Notes on Indian Rhynchota (1885), No. 2, 91. 



'Homop. Ceylon (1903), 160. 



' Fauna Brit. Ind.— Rhynch. (1907), 4, 234. 



'Homop. Ceylon (1907). 



° Loc. cit. 



'Stett. Ent. Zeitg. (1911), 72, 298. 



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