ONCOPELTUS.—-LYG-AUS. 177 
Honpvuras, Rio Hondo (Blancaneaux); Guatemata, Duefias (Champion) ; Costa Rica 
(van Patten & Mus. Berol.).—Cusa®; Sax Domrneo (coll. Dist.) ; Cotompia?®; Guiana, 
Demerara 2, Surinam *; Braziu?. 
A pale-coloured specimen from Mexico is here figured. 
This species is distributed over a wide area. , Prof. Uhler4 states that it is common 
over the greater part of the United States east of the Sierra Nevada, and extends 
from Canada to Central America and Brazil. The same author § also states that in 
Maryland it is common on the purple Asclepias; and Townend Glover® writes that at 
the Maryland Agricultural College Mr. Peck not only found it in great abundance on 
flowers of Asclepias, but also in company with caterpillars of a lepidopteron (Euchetes, 
Fgle). 0. fasciatus is closely allied to the preceding species; but, apart from its 
generally larger size, it may be distinguished by the much longer rostrum. 
LYGAAUS. 
Lygeus (part.), Fabr. Ent. Syst. iv. p. 183 (1794) ; Syst. Rhynch. p. 203 (1803) ; Mayr, Nov. Hem. 
p. 123 (1866). 
Lygeus, Stal, Ofv. Vet.-Ak. Forh. 29. 7, p. 41 (1872); En. Hem. iv. pp. 99 & 104 (1874) 
Lygaeus, subg. Melanocoryphus, Stal, Ofv. Vet.-Ak. Férh. 29. 7, p. 41 (1872). 
Melanocoryphus, Stal, En. Hem. iv. p. 99 (1874). 
Lygeus (part.), Fieb. Eur. Hem. pp. 44 & 164 (1861). 
Lygeosoma, Fieb. Eur. Hem. pp. 45 & 167 (1861). 
In this genus the scutellum is not tumid; the fourth joint of the rostrum is not 
longer than the third, and the following characters, as pointed out by Stal, are constant 
and important:—‘“Capite pone oculos, qui angulos anticos pronoti tangunt, haud 
tumescente.” The characters “ Metapleuris postice recte truncatis, marginibus antico 
et postico parallelis vel subparallelis, margine postico haud vel vix obliquo,” apply also 
to the following genus. 
St&l has divided the extra-European species of the genus into eleven subgenera, four 
of which are represented in Central America, and are here denoted and used in a 
sectional manner, whilst a fifth section is devoted to what Stal ultimately considered 
a true generic division. 
Even these divisions or sections, according to my experience, are sometimes not only 
unsatisfactory, but even arbitrary, resting, as they necessarily do, almost on colour- 
differences alone. | 
Lygeus is found in all the zoological divisions of the world. 
yo > 1S) ——  S¢ernum wholly or in great part black. Margins of abdomen spotted with black. 
Pronotum black, with a pale central fascia or spots. GRAPTOLoMUs, Stal. 
The species included in this division appear to be confined to the Nearctic and Neo- 
tropical Regions. | 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Rhynch., April 1882. 23 
