288 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



wider and deeper insects, with shorter and thicker legs. They have a thick, nearly 

 triangular face, with prominent anteroniferous tubercles, antennae composed of five 

 joints, of which the three intermediate ones are sensibly thicker on their distal end, 

 and the basal joint is stout and very short. The eyes are large, placed obliquely, and 

 very prominent. Commonly the prothorax forms a broad triangle with the tip cut 

 square off, is raised much above the surface of the wing-covers, and has the margins 

 thick. The corium is coarse and thick, and the membrane has three principal basal 

 areoles, from which branching veins run off. Usually the fore-femora are thicker 

 than the others, and have a pair of short spines of different length, underneath, near 

 the tip, and the basal joint of the rostrum is expanded at tip. This group is dis- 

 tinctively American, and is represented by numerous species of very varied patterns, 

 and often richly colored, in the regions extending from the southern United States to 

 the Rio de la Plata River in South America. 



Our native species, Largus suwiiiftttx, which extends from New Jersey to 

 Florida and west to Mexico, is a brownish-black, broad, ovate insect, with the upper 



surface especially opaque, and the venter tinged with bluish by the 

 coating of tine pubescence spread over it. The prothorax is mar- 

 gined each side and behind, likewise the edge of the abdomen and 

 costal margin of wing-covers with orange, or red, and the tro- 

 chanters, together with the bases of the femora, are of the same' 

 color. It measures somewhat more than one-half of an inch to 

 the end of the abdomen. Numerous varieties of this insect have 

 been met with in various parts of Florida and Texas. The males 

 are generally much narrower than the females, but occasionally 

 both sexes are equally narrow. Our species live along the borders 

 of oak woods in Maryland and Virginia, appearing fully adult in 

 the months of July and August. The young stages are of a bril- 

 liant steel-blue color, with reddish legs, and a bright red spot at 

 the base of the abdomen. Specimens from the sea coast of Florida are of a pale 

 tile-red color above, and bluish-gray beneath. The tropical species are more gaily 

 colored than those from Mexico and the United States, and each geographical province 

 has two or three species peculiar to itself. 



Acinocoris and Theraneis have narrower bodies, and the former has unusually 

 prominent eyes. Araphe is remarkable for having a nearly 

 globose head attached to a much narrower bell-shaped pro- 

 thorax. 



The family LTG^ID^E, which comes next to the group 

 just indicated, is sub-divided into about nine so-called sub- 

 families, which differ from each other chiefly in details of the 

 parts of the prothorax. Thus the first, Lygreina, is com- 

 posed of forms which bear a close resemblance to Dysderciiv, 

 and, in common with ail the rest of this family, have a pair 

 of very distinct ocelli between the large eyes. The nearlv 

 conical head is set well back into the prothorax, so as to 

 bring the eyes directly in contact with the latter, and project 

 beyond it. These are chiefly red insects, banded with black across the wing-covers, 

 of which a familiar example is the Lyy<r : us fasciatus. This species has the legs, 

 antenna?, rostrum, sides and middle line of the head, disc of the prothorax, scutellum, 



FIG. 331. 



succinctus. 



FIG. 332. Lygceus fasciatus. 



