Excerpt: Confusion as to the identity and proper name of our common Saperda on trembling aspen, Populus tremuloides Michaux, in eastern North America should be clarified. The confusion has arisen from three reasons: (1) LeConte failed to distinguish S. concolor Lec. (1852) from S. irornata Say (1824); (2) Say\u27s type material was destroyed or lost which makes verification impossible; and (3) S. inornata varies from light to dark in overall appearance. The former two points are discussed here and the latter will be covered in a separate article.
Authors since LeConte\u27s time have used a variety of binominal and trinominal designations for this species. In 1924 J. 0. Martin suggested that the name inornata, which had been placed in the Genus Mecas, really belonged in the Genus Saperda and that S. inornata should be reinstated replacing LeConte\u27s concolor which Martin, followed by Breuning (1952), considered a synonym of inornata. Despite Martin\u27s suggestion, S. concolor is in common use today. However, a search of the literature produced evidence which substantiates Martin\u27s claim that inornata must stand (Nord, 1968). A summary of this search is presented here in detail and a neotype has been proposed so that the nomenclature will be stabilized (Nord and Knight, 1970)
