ee 
136 HEMIPTERA-HETEROPTERA. 
narrow transverse fulyous mark on each side of the-disc in front, the base of the antenna, the prosternum, 
the coxe and trochanters entirely or in part, the base of the anterior femora, the connexival margins, and 
in the males the terminal ventral segment in the middle and the underside of the first genital segment, 
more or less flavous; the pleura and under surface bluish-grey; the body, legs, and antenna very finely 
pubescent, and also clothed (the two apical joints of the antennz excepted) with long scattered sete, the 
pronotum usually with a transverse patch of greyish or silvery pubescence on each side in front. Head 
with a smooth impressed median line; antennez moderately long, joint 1 about one-half. longer than 2, 
2 and 3 equal in length, 4 shorter than 3, stout, fusiform. Pronotum with a distinct median ridge, and 
produced behind into a spiniform process, the surface sparsely and finely punctured. Legs long and rather 
slender, the hind tibiee with a very short indistinct tooth at the apex; intermediate tarsi with joints 
2 and 3 subequal in length. 
¢. Anterior tibiz dilated in their apical half; posterior femora moderately incrassate, armed on the inner 
side with a long, partly flavous, tooth at about one-third from the base, and with a row of short teeth 
extending thence to the apex (in some of the well-developed apterous examples also closely and finely 
denticulate along the basal third); posterior tibie finely denticulate and slightly sinuous within. Pronotal 
spine short. Sixth ventral segment broadly flattened along the middle and feebly arcuate-emarginate at 
the apex. 
9. Posterior femora not stouter than the intermediate femora, armed with a very long, acute, blackish tooth 
at about the middle, and very finely denticulate thence to the apex; posterior tibie straight, obsoletely 
denticulate within. Pronotal spine very long, stout, and raised, armed with a strong tooth at the 
base beneath. 
Length 5, breadth (of the pronotum) 14-1? millim. 
Apterous form. § 2. Fusiform, the pronotum abbreviated and rounded behind; the abdomen metallic green 
above, with a stripe of greyish pubescence running down each side of the dorsal surface; the connexivum 
very broad in the females, extending inwards and overlapping the dorsal surface of the abdomen, the two 
portions nearly or quite meeting along the median line. 
Hab. Norta America, Indiana!.—Mexico (coll. Signoret?, in Mus. Vind. Ces.), 
Orizaba (H. H. Smith; Bilimek, in Mus. Vind. Ces.). 
Var. Apterous form. 3 @. The anterior femora dark to the base ; the cox and trochanters darker, the latter, 
at most, flavous at the base; the sixth ventral segment broadly flattened, the flattened portion limited on 
each side anteriorly by a short, angular, longitudinal ridge. 
Hab. Mexico, Ciudad in Durango 8100 feet (Forrer). 
Of this species we have received a winged pair from Orizaba, as well as numerous 
apterous specimens and nymphs from the same locality ; there are also three winged 
Mexican examples (two males and one female) of it in the Vienna Museum *, one of 
them being from the Signoret collection. It is the Velia distincta of Walker's 
Catalogue. The form treated as a variety is represented by five females and one 
male, all of which are apterous. The great difference in the form of the pronotal 
spine amongst the winged specimens is perhaps a sexual character. In some of the 
males the posterior femora are more strongly incrassate, with the basal third closely 
and distinctly denticulate within; the females have the single long tooth more distant 
from the base, and the outer teeth very short and fine. The apical joint of the antenne 
* In the Vienna Museum there is a winged specimen of an undescribed species closely allied to 2. distincta. 
It is from the Signoret collection, and ticketed “ R. armata, Burm., Centr. America”; but as the localities 
attached to some of Signoret’s specimens cannot be depended upon (his undescribed R. burmenstert being 
labelled ‘Centr. America,” whereas he himself has published it as from La Guayra), the insect is omitted 
from our enumeration 
