292 



NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



FIG. 339. P/tlcea ionglrostris. 



nexivum has a series of double green spots on the segments, and there are some small 

 spots of the same color near the front angles of the prothorax. This is our largest native 



species, and it is pretty generally distributed throughout the United 

 States north of the Ohio River. Its stout, long rostrum gives it a 

 great advantage in holding and piercing other insects upon which 

 it feeds. 



Phlcea longirostriS) from Brazil, is a remarkable example of 

 the leaf-like pattern common to the Phlaeina. It is flat and very 

 thin, with the broad form so conspicuous in the family at large, 

 and has exceptionally long antennas and rostrum. The colors are 

 green and gray, closely imitating the pale bark of various 

 trees and shrubs. 



The Halydina are chiefly broad, moderately flat, gray and 

 brown insects, with long, slender antennas and rostrum, prom- 

 inent shoulders, and uneven surface, with very branching 

 veins to the membrane. One of the commonest forms in 

 the Atlantic region is Brocliymena annulata. It has a 

 squarer head than its nearest relative, with the front rather 

 short, a deep notch each side, and a very slight one before 

 the tylus. The surface is unevenly punctate with black, and 

 the membrane is distinctly marbled with the same color, 

 while the side margins of the prothorax are moderately 

 toothed, and the shoulders are oblique, feebly curved, and knobbed. Notwithstanding 

 the long and slender rostrum, it is a great enemy to caterpillars and other insects, 

 which it searches for upon the leaves and twigs of a great variety of trees in our cities 

 and in the thin woods of the adjacent country. 



Probably the largest and most varied sub-family of this assemblage is the Penta- 

 tomina. Splendidly ornamented and brilliant colored species abound in the tropics of 

 South America, and others, less numerous, in Africa and Asia. North America has 



a very gay representative of this type in the Mar- 

 gantia histrionica. It is polished blue-black, banded, 

 striped, and margined above with yellow, orange, or 

 red, and on the venter has seven lines of yellow and 

 orange spots, those on the middle being largest, and 

 the head has generally two Avhite spots on the front. 

 It plays havoc with the cabbages and other cruciferous plants, and occasionally attacks 

 the Cucurbitas also. Prior to the late civil war it was confined to the States south of 

 Virginia, but since that time it has spread as far north as New Jersey, and west into 

 Missouri. Its native home appears to have been Guatemala, where it abounds, and from 

 whence it spread into Mexico, and then across the line into Texas and our southern States. 

 Passing by the Edessina, which have the sternum elevated into a cross, and the middle 

 line of the venter built into a callous ridge with its base protracted forwards into a horn, 

 we reach the Asopina, a sub-family closely verging upon the great group next to be 

 noticed. A most superb example of the Asopus type is the Stiretrus anchorago. It 

 is of a glossy steel-blue color, with orange marks on the front and sides of the pronotum, 

 also a band at base, and narrow margin at end of the scutellum, besides the margins 

 of the venter, large spots on its disc, and some spots on the sternum, all of the same 

 color. Here the scutellum is nearly as long as the abdomen and more than one-half 



FlG. 340. Murgantia histrionica. 



