Vol. XXviii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 65 



New York Scolopostethi (Family Lygaeidae : Heter.). 



By J. R. DE LA TORRE-BUENO, White Plains, New York. 



SCOLOPOSTETHUS Fieber 

 Fieber, 1861, Eur. Hem. 66 and 188; Horv. 1893, Rev. d'Ent. 238. 



The genus Scolopostcthits of the family Lygaeidae was es- 

 tablished by Fieber in his Europaischen Hemiptera, in the 

 dichotomy. In the specific keys it was further defined and 

 six species were separated. It belongs in the subfamily RJiy- 

 parochrominae (Stal), V. D. Check List, or Aphan'mae of the 

 European authors; and to the tribe Lethiini (Stal) V. D. 

 (recte Lethaeiini), or Drymini of the Europeans, and follows 

 our southwestern genus Hsuris Stal in the lists, or Cryphula 

 Stal in our local fauna, being the last of the family Lygaeidae 

 in Van Duzee's arrangement. This, by the bye, differs mark- 

 edly from Oshanin and other European authorities, in whose 

 arrangement it follows Eremocoris, its most similar neighbor. 



The Lygaeidae (or MyodocJiidae) form a very extensive 

 family, being the third in number of species after the Mlrldae 

 and the Pentatomldae, in this order. All have a very distinctive 

 aspect, from the gaily colored species of Lygaeus to the gray 

 and sober Nysius. They fall into a number of well-defined 

 divisions recognized as subfamilies and tribes. The ApJianinac 

 (Pachynierlnae, Rhyparochromlnae} are distinguished by hav- 

 ing the sutures of the second and third abdominal segments 

 more or less curved toward the connexivum which they do not 

 reach, a sharp character separating them from all other sub- 

 families. The Lethaeiini are separated from the remaining 

 tribes of the subfamily by having no regular lateral lamellar 

 pronotal expansion except at the middle, and the pronotum 

 much narrowed anteriorly. 



In Scolopostcthns the head is triangular, anteriorly acumi- 

 nate, the first antennal joint going beyond its apex ; the eyes 

 do not quite touch the pronotum ; the rostrum reaches the in- 

 termediate coxae, the pronotum is trapezoidal, sometimes nearly 

 square, depending on the wing development ; the lateral mar- 

 gins sinuate, laminate ; the incrassate anterior femora have a 



