GASTRIC C/ECA OF THE HETEROPTERA. 1 05 



a number of station entomologists located in parts of the country 

 from which Murgantia had been reported. Living specimens 

 were thus secured from ten states, extending in a continuous 

 series along the southern and eastern part of the United States 

 for a distance of between two and three thousand miles, including 

 California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, 

 Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Mary- 

 land. The specimens of Murgantia for this study were obtained 

 through the kindness of the following entomologists the loca- 

 tions given showing the place where the insects were collected : 



T. B. Symons, College Park, Maryland. 



Franklin Sherman, Jr., Greenboro and Raleigh, North Carolina. 



A. F. Conradi,. Clemson College, South Carolina. 



H. P. Stuckey, Experiment, Georgia. 



W. E. Hinds, Auburn, Alabama. 



R. H. Harned, Agricultural College, Mississippi. 



Paul Hayhurst, Lanske, Arkansas. 



C. E. Sanborn, Stillwater, Oklahoma. 



Fabian Garcia, Agricultural College, New Mexico. 



C. W. Woodworth, Live Oak, California. 



In addition to these localities, specimens of Murgantia were 

 also examined from different parts of Illinois, especially from 

 the southern part of the state, where they were collected by Mr. 

 L. M. Smith, of the state entomologist's office; and two specimens 

 were also taken as far north as Urbana, Illinois. 



Upon a comparison of the contents of the caeca of specimens 

 from these widely separated localities, it soon became evident 

 that the peculiar organism, first observed in the caeca of the two 

 specimens collected at Urbana, was a constant inhabitant of 

 the caeca of Murgantia, and that whether the individual examined 

 was from California or Maryland this was invariably the highly 

 characteristic, contorted organism first observed in the Urbana 

 specimens. 



While the caecal organisms from all these localities are clearly 

 of the same species, all having precisely the same typical form, 

 there are certain occasional differences in size that it may be 

 well to mention. It was observed, for example, that in the 

 insects from Georgia, as well as in occasional specimens from 



