THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST 
Vor. XXIV. DECEMBER, 1890. 288. 
THE NATICOID GENUS STROPHOSTYLUS. 
BY CHARLES R. KEYES. 
MONG the well-marked generic groups defined by Conrad is 
one to which the name Platyostoma was applied. This 
term was proposed in 1842 ;? and since that time it has come into 
common use in American Paleontology. The group embraces a 
considerable number of familiar species, ranging in geologic time 
from the Niagara epoch to the close of the Paleozoic. It is rather 
unfortunate, therefore, that the term had been preoccupied, having 
been used in generic diagnoses on at least four different occasions. 
Megerle early applied this name to certain mollusks closely re- 
lated to Buccinum ; but so far as is known no formal publication 
of the term was ever made. Were this the only obstacle in the 
way, Conrad’s genus might be allowed to stand, for the reason 
that Megerle’s proposition was only in manuscript. Klein? how- 
ever, proposed P/atystoma in 1753 for a genus of Cyclostomacea. 
Meigen‘ adopted the same term: in 1803 for certain flies, and 
Agassiz, * in 1829, also used it for a section of Silurid fishes. The 
preoccupation of Conrad’s Platyostoma by Klein’s Platystoma, 
like a number of similar cases, has been objected to on the ground 
that the two terms, while derived from the same words, are not 
identical, because Conrad's compound has a connecting o. It is 
1 Read before the Iowa Academy of Sciences, September 5, 1890. 
2 Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., Vol. VIII., p. 275. : 
3 Teut. Meth. Ostr., 1753. 
4 Illig. Mag., Vol. 11., 1803. - 
5 Pois. Foss., Vol. II., 1829. 
