BLISSUS.—GEOCORIS. 197 
conterminous with the increase of grain-cultivation in that country ; and the injury it 
occasioned to the “small grains” in the North-western States in 1871 amounted to 
upwards of thirty million dollars; whilst in 1874’ the damage was computed at twice 
thatsum. It has been found by Riley to be two-brooded in some of the United States ; 
and its eggs are deposited “ occasionally above ground on the blades of grain—but far 
more often, and normally, underground, upon the roots of the plants infested.” The 
same author states that though abundantly able to fly, the Chinch Bug does not take 
to wing readily; and in their immature stage, before their wings are developed, they 
migrate from field to field on foot, “ often in solid columns inches deep.” It multiplies 
most in hot and dry seasons, moisture proving unfavourable to its existence. . 
With the exception of Cuba, given by Stal, I have met with no record of a more 
southern habitat for this species than the United States. It is therefore interesting, in 
a biological if not in an agricultural sense, to find it distributed throughout Central 
America. 
Subfam. GEOCORIN A. 
Geocorida, Stal, Hem. Afr. ii. p. 121 (1865). 
Geocorina, Stal, En. Hem. iv. p. 183 (1874). 
Geocorine, Uhler, Bull. U.S. Geol. & Geog. Surv. iii. p. 409 (1877). 
In the Geocorine the membrane possesses no basal areolet. No thorough knowledge 
of the distribution of this subfamily is at present obtainable, as its members are small 
in size and have hitherto, in many large regions, been scarcely at all collected. All 
conclusions on the general distribution of the Geocorine must therefore at present be 
quite empirical. The extra-European species have been separated by Stal into three 
genera; and this may probably apply to the whole subfamily as at present known ; for 
though Stal has proposed some new genera for the European species, these have been 
treated by Dr. Puton as only subgenera of Geocoris, a widely distributed genus, and 
the only one yet received from Central America. 
GEOCORIS. 
Geocoris, Fall. Spec. Hem. disp. meth. Exh. p. 10 (1814) ; Stal, Hem. Afr. ii. p. 148 (1865) ; Ofv- 
Vet.-Ak. Forh. 29: 7, p. 46 (1872). 
Salda, Latr. Régn. An. v. p. 198 (1829) ; Spin. Ess. Hém. p. 227 (1837). 
Ophthalmicus, p., Schill. in Beitr. zur Ent. i. p. 62 (1829). 
Ophthalmicus, Fieb. Eur. Hem. pp. 46 & 174 (1861). 
Geocoris is at once separated from the only other recorded American genus, 
Epipolops, by the non-petiolated eyes. The genus is probably cosmopolitan, or at 
least found in all the principal zoological regions. 
1. Geocoris imperialis, n. sp. (Tab. XVIII. fig. 18.) 
Body above bright ochraceous ; antenn», apex of the head, inner margin of eyes, a large sublunate spot at 
base of pronotum, and scutellum black. Head beneath and prosternum bright ochraceous ; base of pro-, 
