BUGS. 277 



legs are pale, with a brown band beyond the knees. A very interesting element of 

 structure is an adaptation of the interval between the fore-coxae for the reception of 

 the tip of the rostrum. The space there is sunk into a shallow oblong pit, with the 

 margins raised, and into this the point slides backward and forwards as the insect 

 depresses or elevates its head. It measures about one inch and a third in total length, 

 but with the great spider-like legs stretched out in walking appears fully twice that 

 size. When lodged on the twig of a tree or bush it has a curious habit of swinging 

 backwards and forwards like some of the long-legged spiders, such as Phalanr/ium. 

 This species is quite common in many parts of the United States east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, from Massachusetts to Florida, and west to central Texas. In Maryland 

 its principal home is in the young pine trees, where it may be seen with its two fore- 

 legs placed close together and stretched out in front, as is the habit of our common 

 phasmid, the Diaplieromera femorata. Occasionally it leaves the trees and takes 

 shelter in sheds, outhouses, and barns, where it may be seen overhead swinging by its 

 long legs from a rafter or the lining of the roof. The immature form may be found 

 roaming over the trees during early summer, but by the middle of August it acquires 

 the organs of flight and becomes a fully developed adult. We do not yet know where 

 it deposits the eggs ; but from analogy we are led to believe that these are glued to the 

 twigs of bushes and trees, just as is the case with many others of the great group to 

 which this species belongs. The fore-legs are most formidable instruments in catch- 

 ing and securing the insects upon which it feeds ; the long fore-coxae project far in 

 front of the head, and furnish a swinging joint for the spined femora, which can be 

 thrown forward like a flail, while at the same time the sharp tibiae are shut back 

 against the acute spines, and the victim thus irretrievably transfixed. 



Another sub-division of this family embraces species with shorter, wider heads, and 

 forms which imitate the delicate and gossamer-winged gnats. One of these, Ploiaria 

 errabunda, is the counterpart of an European species. It has a slightly flattened, long 

 body, a bowl-shaped head with a transverse impressed line between the eyes, filamen- 

 tous legs and antennae, and lichen-like markings on the filmy, whitish wing-covers. 

 The ground color is pale or whitish, the prothorax obscurely brown each side, the 

 corium pale brown with white veins, the end of the membrane has a smoke-colored 

 spot, the surface before tins is very pale-brownish, marked with white, and the legs and 

 antennae are ringed with brown. It is one of the smallest of the group, and measures 

 only one-sixth of an inch in total length. Its delicacy and small size have caused it to 

 be a rare species in collections, but it is no doubt common enough upon the leaves and 

 branches of the Cornus florida, where we have found it during the month of June. 



Other species inhabit California, Texas, Mexico, and the West India Islands, some 

 of which are even more frail and thin-winged than the foregoing. 



The largest member of this sub-division is an extremely curious insect, built in the 

 most intangible manner as far as the prothorax, antennas, and hind-legs are concerned. 

 It is the type of the genus Stenolemus, and our species is spiniventris. Thus far it 

 has been found only in Arizona, Mexico, and Cuba, but it will no doubt be seen to 

 have a wider distribution when the hemipterous fauna of our southern states shall 

 have been adequately searched out. 



This anomalous insect may be recognized by the abruptly widened base and front 

 of the prothorax, the latter part conforming to the width of the head, and the two 

 together composing a club with a slender part behind, like a handle. The abdomen 

 is narrower than the base of the thorax, but grows wider behind, and is covered, all 



