THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 869.— November 15th, 1913. 



ON THE GENUS AMPHIPSYLLA, Wagn. (1909). 



By K. Jordan, Ph.D., and the Hon. N. Charles Rothschild, M.A. 



(Plates II. & III.) 



Professor Wagner proposed Amphipsylla for two new species 

 of Siphonaptera from Asiatic Russia, and gave a review in 1912 

 of the species known to him as belonging to this genus. 



The species contained in Amphipsylla form a natural group, 

 being all closely allied to one another, and we perfectly agree 

 with Wagner that they should be placed together in a separate 

 genus. The species mentioned by Wagner are sibirica, shelkovni- 

 kovi, dcea, rossica, and kuznetzovi. We add to this list five more 

 species, two of which are here described for the first time. This 

 considerable addition to the genus renders a slight modification 

 of the diagnosis necessary, as some of the characters mentioned 

 by Wagner do not hold good. 



In his revised diagnosis (1912) Wagner states that both sexes 

 have two antepygidial bristles. This is a pen-slip, all the 

 species having three such bristles. 



We consider Amphipsylla to be an offshoot from Ceratophy litis, 

 from which it is distinguishable by the following combination of 

 characters : — 



Head with three rows of bristles across frons and occiput ; 



frons strongly rounded. Eye reduced. Antennal groove open, 



in male continued on to the propleurum. Bristles of second 



antennal segment short in both sexes. Hind margin of pronotum 



Zool. ith ser. vol. XVII.. November, 1913. 2 i 



