Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

A Journal of Entomology

founded in 1874 by the Cambridge Entomological Club
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A. N. Caudell.
Dentrotettix quercus Packard.
Psyche 22:52-53, 1915.

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58, Psyche [April
DENDROTETTIX QUERCUS PACKARD.
BY A. N. CAUDELL,
Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture. The name of the above insect is an excellent illustration of confusion resulting from the use of manuscript names of insects before the species is described. The pertinent literature of this genus and species is as follows:
1887. Bruner, Bull. No. 13, Bur. Ent. Dept. Agric., p. 17-19. (Describes nymphs from Texas and discusses habits of the adult, including flight.
No technical name used.)
1888.
Riley, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., Vol. I, p. 86. (Mentions the genus Dendrotettix and the species quercus as new, gives locality as Missouri and expresses the intention of describing in the near future but here gives no characters at all.) 1890. Packard, Fifth Rept. U. S. Ent. Comm., p. 214. (Quotes in full the article of Bruner in 1887 and uses the name Dendrotettix quercus Riley MS.)
1891. Bruner, Can. Ent., Vol. XXIII, p. 191 and Ins. Life, Vol. IV, p. 20.
(Uses the name Dendrotettix longipennis but mentions no characters other than the statement that both long and short winged specimens occur. The material here discussed is from Texas on oak and the statement is made that specimens taken in Missouri, also on oak, were described by Riley under the above name.)
1893.
Riley, Ins. Life, Vol. V, p. 254.
(Gives a good descrip-
tion of the genus Dendrotettix and of the species longipennis, the latter from 2 d" and 3 Q specimens from Texas. He also states that the specimens found in Missouri and formerly referred to by himself as quercus is probably of no more than varietal distinctness and is designated as Dendrotettix longipennis var. quercus.) 1897. Scudder, Rev. Melanopli, p. 91. (Uses generic name Dendrotettix with Riley as authority, dating it from 1893 but men- tioning the 1888 reference as consisting of name only. The name of the species is given as quercus and the authority for it is given as Riley, both in this reference and in the Catalog of U. S. Orthop- tera published three years later.
Considering the above articles chronologically from systematic and nomenclatorial viewpoints we at once dispose of the first one, Pu&e 2252-53 ( 1915). hup Ytpsychu einclub orgt22/22-052 html



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19151 Cuudell-Dendrotettix quercus (Packurd) 53 Bruner 1887, as there is no scientific name at all used. The second
reference, Riley 1888, is likewise passed over as no characters are there mentioned. We now come to the third reference, Packard 1890. Here a scientific name, Dendrotettix quercus, is used in connection with a printed description of structural charac- ters. This fills all requirements for the valid establishment of genera and species and thus the genus Dendrotettix, with quercus as type, is to be credited to Packard, the first to validat,e it. The facts that Packard quotes ~runer's article of 1887, that he uses Riley's manuscript name and that the characters are described from immature specimens do not lessen the validity of the names established.
Now comes the question of the types of Dendrotettix quercus Packard. It seems obvious that the types are the nymphs from which Bruner drew up the description given in his article of 1887 and quoted by Packard in 1890. In the paper in which these nymphs are described Prof. Bruner states that specimens accom- pany the report, which was on an investigation made by him as an agent of the Division of Entomology of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. It is to be supposed that specimens of these nymphs were included, and, indeed, there are now in the National Museum, which has long been the depository of material gathered by the Division of Entomology, three nymphs from Texas which are evidently ones sent in by Bruner as they fit his description very well and bear the collection label of Prof. Riley as did all mateiral of this nature added to the collection in those days. One of these three nymphs, a female with wingpads as long as the prono- turn, is therefore here designated as the type of Dendrotettix quercus Packard.
That D. quercus is the long winged form is clear from the well developed wingpads of the nymphs and from the statement in Prof. Bruner's report of the extended flight of the adults. Thus both specific names, longipennis and quercus, pertain to the macrop- terous form.
Regarding the author of the specific name longipennis there may also be some difference of opinion as the first use of that name was by Bruner in 1891. But no differentiating character was mentioned at this time, merely the statement that both long and short winged forms occur. Dr. Riley in 1893 was the first to vali-



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