DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 85 



gitudiual ridge ending in a pale spot, and with the lateral margins pale ; prostcmum 

 dark, more or less pubescent, the anterior and posterior margins, and a band outside 

 of cox;e, more or less broadly pale ; mesosternnm amV metasternum also dark, with 

 the pale spots outside of coxa'. Legs pale yellow, inclining more or less to brown ; 

 cox dark at base, pale at tip ; trochauters pale ; front and middle femora spotted 

 more or less continently on the outside with brown ; hind femora, $ dark brown, ex- 

 cept at tips and base ; 9 spotted only ; tibite ringed with brown at base; tarsi marked 

 more or less with brown, especially at tip. Hemelytm either colorless, transparent 

 and prismatic, or distinctly tinged with dingy yellow ; shallowly punctate and very 

 finely pubescent, the veins of corium and clavus dingy yellow, with brown streaks, 

 the more constant of these streaks being two on posterior margin of corium, and one 

 at the tip of clavns. Jldomtn, $ tergum piceous, with the sutures and sides of some 

 of the joints rarely paler ; venter piceous, minutely and regularly covered with gray 

 pubescence ; 9 sutures and spots on tergum more often pale ; venter dingy yellow, 

 except at base; 9 paler than $ , and generally larger. Average length 0.13 inch 

 [= 3.i"], 



Lan-a. Dingy yellow, with more or less distinct longitudinal dark lines, especially 

 on head. 



Pupa. Same color, with more distinct red and brown longitudinal. lines, and two 

 little tooth-like, pale yellow processes at inner base of hemelytra pads, indicating the 

 wings ; the abdomen paler than the rest of the body. 



Described from numerous specimens. I have some, especially males, in which the black 

 so predominates that the paler parts of the head and thorax are scarcely traceable, 

 while in others agaii the pale parts predominate almost to the exclusion of the black. 

 Indeed, so variable is the species that it is difficult to see wherein some of the specimens 

 differ from the European thi/mi, or from .AT. angiistatus Uhler, audit is barely possible 

 that future comparison will show specific identity between some or all of the three. 

 But as long as authors fail to give the variation a species is liable to, or the number 

 of specimens a description is drawn up from, it will remain impossible to decide such 

 questions satisfactorily, and I name destructor at the suggestion of our- Hemipterist, 

 Mr. P. R. Uhler, of Baltimore, who has examined specimens which I sent him. [Fifth 

 Rept.. p. 113. Fig. 41. 



MYTILASPIS POMICORTICIS, N. SP. Eggs from 30 to 100 under each scale ; length 

 scarcely 0.01 inch, irregularly ovoid, nearly thrice as long as wide, snow-white, ex- 

 cept just prior to hatching, when they become yellowish. Larva Length of body 

 0.01 inch, ovoid, thrice as long as wide, pale yellow, with a darker yellow spot near 

 each end ; a few short hairs seen around border ; two fine anal setae about half as long 

 as body springing from two lobes between which two spinous hairs are always seen ; 

 antenna* quite variable, the joints irregular and not easily resolved, sometimes ap- 

 pearing only 6-jointed, but more generally 7-joiuted, with a few hairs, two or three at 

 tip the longest and most persistent ; legs with a one-jointed tarsus, a feeble claw, and, 

 among other hairs, four more or less distinctly knobbed ones near tip, the two upper- 

 most longest. 



$ Length of body, 0.0-22 inch [ = .5.5 mm ] ; color, translucent cameous-gray ; a dorsal 

 transverse baud on each abdominal joint, and portions of the inesothorax and meta- 

 thorax darker, or purple-gray ; the members somewhat lighter. Head, sub-triangular ; 

 rostrum rudimentary ; ocular tubercles, one each side of it, plainly visible, the eyes 

 on the upper surface prominent, dark, and with few facets ; antenme as long as body, 

 10-jointed, joints 1 and 2 bulbous and sometimes indistinctly separated; 3 9 about 

 four times as long as wide, slightly constricted; 10 half as long and fusiform ; all but 

 basal two with a whorl of about eight hairs, slightly clavate and as long as width of 

 joint. Thorax very large, oval; prothoracic portion narrowing in front, composed of 

 two transverse folds, the anterior one having a transverse row of four dusky dots ; the 

 niesothoracic portion large and elevated, showing three lateral swellings ; a well-de- 

 fined medio-dorsal plate, rounded in front, shallowly-uotched behind, with a medio- 



