294 Mr. W. L. Distant on Bhynchota from the group of Cats we Lave all the intermediate steps in size between the teeth of Felts catus and Felt's pardus, though the animals themselves do not vary greatly in size and are not much larger than the former ; they form a very distinct group, the skulls not being easily confused with those of any other Cat. XXXIV. — Rhynchota from the Transvaal , Mashonaland, and British Nyasaland. By W. L. DISTANT. Part I. This paper refers to the Heteropterous family Pentatomidoe, and is based on my own and other collections acquired in the Transvaal ; one made near Salisbury, Mashonaland, by Mr. Guy A. K. Marshall; and another received from Dr. Percy Rendall, when that excellent collector sojourned in Nyasaland. These three collections are enumerated separately. Since I last wrote a faunistic paper on the Rhynchota some parts have appeared of the ' Catalogue General des He*mi-pteres ' by Lethierry and Severin, and as this publication in its arrangement generally reflects the present views of most hemipterists, and will probably be accepted as a convenient standard of classification and nomenclature, it is followed here. It is largely based on the excellent work achieved by the late Dr. C. Stal, whose ' Enumeratio Hemipterorum ' has long held the ground, and is even now not altogether super-seded, but rather brought up to date by the thorough work of the above catalogue so far as it has yet been published. After all, there is no finality in classification. As it has been well observed — " He that has fewest faults is the best man ; and so it is with scientific systems." In this first family, Pentatomida3, the following species are enumerated for the three localities : — Species. Sp. nov. Gen. nov. Transvaal 120 16 2 Mashonaland 36 5 1 British Nyasaland 45 8 2 Some interesting facts in geographical distribution become apparent. Thus Nezara pallido-conspersa, Stal, a species hitherto recorded from Madagascar, I took myself at Pretoria ; the West-African species Bathyccelia buonopoziensis, Pal.
BioStor
