Vol. XXviii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 3 



New and Noteworthy Forms of North American 



Miridae (Hemip.)* 



By HARRY H. KNIGHT, Ithaca, New York. 

 In working over considerable miscellaneous material in the 

 family Miridae the writer has found a few species that are of 

 particular interest and takes occasion to present part of his 

 findings in the present paper. 



Sericophanes ocellatus Renter. 



While studying Miridae in the collection of the United 

 States National Museum the writer found two specimens 

 bearing the label, "Texas Belfrage" which evidently represent 

 original type material of this species. These specimens came 

 from the C. V. Riley collection and no doubt were acquired 

 from Mr. Belfrage at a time when that collector sent material 

 to various entomologists and museums. Dr. Renter described 

 the genus Sericophanes and the single species ocellatus in his 

 paper of 1875, "Capsinae ex America boreali in Museo Hol- 

 miensi asservatae descriptae ab" (Ofversight af Kongl. Veten- 

 skaps-Akademiens Forhandlingar, 1875, No. 9, Stockholm), 

 from an assemblage of North American Hemiptera collected 

 by Mr. Belfrage and which in some way were acquired by the 

 Stockholm Museum. It was this wholesale shipment of 

 North American Hemiptera to European specialists in the 

 early days that resulted in the description of many of our 

 species. This loss of types to American students has made it 

 difficult to always name our species accurately and some may 

 never be known with certainty until comparison is made with 

 the type specimens. 



The following notes are taken from a study of the above 

 type material and are given here for comparison with the north- 

 ern species described below : 



$. Length to tip of membrane, 2.6 mm.; length of pronotum .43 

 mm., width at base .71 mm., apex .37 mm.; head, width across tin- 

 .60 mm., width of vertex .25 mm.; color of head, thorax, legs and al>- 



*Contribution from the Department of Entomology of (.'"null Uni- 

 versity. 



