Scudder.] 290 [April 19, 



with perfect tegmina but rudimentary wings, viz., pedestris Bon. 

 and decipiens Gene 1 ; the former is alblpennis Meg., and neither 

 of them can be generically separated from Forficula Linn- 

 Tliat genus, it is true, is very large, and contains species differ, 

 ing to a much greater extent than usual from one another, some 

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

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

 arating alblpennis 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 Dermaptera 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 

 following species; mauritanica Luc, maritima Bon., angulifera 

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

 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- 

 labis, 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 Forficularise 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 maritima, the type of 

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

 some individuals in which the plications are tolerably distinct, while 



i Westwood says, <' three species are described," but the above are the only two. 



