A CONTROVERSIAL NOTE ON SOME SPECIES OF LYGAEUS (HEMIPTERA, LYGAEIDAE)

In a brief note mentioning a few species of Lygaeus, Mr. Van Duzee suggests that I may have misidentified L., kalmii Stal in my paper on the distribution and forms of that species, but the basis for this notion remains obscure, since our senior hemipterist contents himself with a series of ex cathedra statements devoid of argument or documentation. He surmises quite correctly that I followed Stal in my identification of the species concerned-and why not? Stal's work is clear and, for aught we know to the contrary, perfectly sound. More-ever, in the most recent monograph of the genus, Barber reaches conclusions in harmony with Stal's fundamental treatment and my later elaboration. In Mr. Van Duzee's little note all this previous work is ignored and we are favored with a series of bare propositions. which, if they have a certain value as expressions of the author's revolutionary opinions, are nevertheless in conflict with the evidence, I believe, and hence to be rejected. Let us consider these propositions one by one.