PREDACEOUS BUGS. 127 



Hemip. Het., p. 60), an opinion also held by Dr. Lintner 

 (Report Entomological Society, Ontario, 1885, p. 13), but 

 which appears to have been overlooked by later writers. 

 Aside from the variations in the green markings on the 



O O 



thorax previously referred to, the color of the punctures on 

 the upper-surface ranges from brick red to dark brown. The 

 only aberrations in form that I have seen are two specimens, 

 one of which has both humeral angles blunted off and actu- 

 ally emarginate, the other having the right humeral angle 

 normal, the left being rounded. Both these insects were 

 bred from nymphs, and their peculiarities of structure may 

 be due to defective nutrition or to some accident at the time 

 of the last molt, while the body was still soft. 



Habits. 



The imagoes of this species hibernate under leaves. At 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, there are 

 several specimens collected by Mr. Boll during the winter 

 of 1872-73. These were sifted out from a quantity of 

 leaves raked from the ground. The eggs and early nymph 

 stages are unknown to the writer. Nymphs in the last stage 

 have been taken frequently during June, July and August, 

 and are known to feed on the larvae of the gypsy moth. 

 They may be described as follows : 



Podisus cynicus nymph. 



Length, 10 mm. ; greatest width, 8 mm. Body compact, some- 

 what elliptical iii outline ; head deeply inserted in the thorax. 

 Posterior angles of thorax produced for a short distance along 

 the sides of the abdomen. General color of head and thorax 

 pale yellowish brown, sometimes marked with red. A fine dark 

 seal-brown line extends around the margin of the head, thorax 

 and wing-pads, and borders the tylus. From near the middle of 

 the inner margin of each wing-pad a fine dark-brown line extends 

 obliquely outward and backward to the outer margin, enclosing a 

 somewhat diamond-shaped area, and marking the anterior margin 

 of the future wing membrane. The median sulcus of the pro- 

 thorax and scutellum is bordered with dark brown, and the sur- 

 face of the thorax is finely punctured with faint brown dots. On 

 either side of the dorsal sulcus of the prothorax there is a short, 

 irregular, transverse black line, extending obliquely backward 



