112 
Psyche 
[June 
Tricitoma, is omitted here. The original descriptions of Neiva’s 
own species are transcribed in full, and bibliographic references 
to the others are given. These descriptions, which deal almost 
entirely with color characters and mention scarcely any struc- 
tural details, are utterly worthless for the satisfactory identifica- 
tion of the species, and it will be necessary to examine the types 
in order definitely to fix the forms. This work is soon to be 
undertaken by Mr. H. G. Barber and myself, and will be reported 
later. 
A bibliography containing 97 titles is appended to the 
“Revisao.” 
The other paper, which Mr. Barber has very kindly brought 
to my attention is the “Contribucion al estudio del gen. Triatoma 
Lap.” by Eduardo del Ponte, published in Vol. II of the “Revista 
del Instituto Bacteriologico del Departamento Nacional de 
Higiene, Buenos Aires,” and dated March 1921. The first part 
of this work, dealing with the anatomy of the Triatomas, is 
original; the chapters dealing with the biology and the system- 
atics of the group are frankly based on Neiva’s “Revisao,” yet 
contain much additional material. Of particular interest is the 
account of the so-called xe?iocliag?iosis (Brumpt), which affords 
an infallible method of diagnosing the early stages of suspected 
trypanosomal diseases, when the trypanosomes are too few to be 
detected readily by ordinary methods. Xenodiagnosis consists 
essentially in allowing an uninfected Triatoma nymph to bite the 
patient and to take up a considerable quantity of blood, after 
which the insect is placed in an incubator at 30° C. If trypano- 
somes were present in the patient, and were ingested by the 
Triatoma, they multiply rapidly in the insect and may readily 
be found. 
In his systematic treatment of the genus, Del Ponte has 
made a very creditable effort to supply the deficiencies in Neiva’s 
“Revisao.” He gives good figures and full descriptions of the 
half-dozen species known to him {T. circummaculata, T. infestans , 
T. platensis, T. rubrovaria, T. sordida, and T. vitticeps; and 
description only of T. megista). In addition, he gives a full 
translation of the best description available (usually that of 
