VIII 



HETEROPTERA PENTATOMIDAE 



545 



Cryptocerata they are hidden. The series Crymnocerata includes 

 all the terrestrial Heteroptera, and the two families, Hebridae 

 and Hydrometridae, which live on the surface of the water or in 

 very damp places ; while Cryptocerata includes all the forms that 

 live under water. 



Fam. 1, Pentatomidae. Scutellum very large, at least half 

 as long us the abdomen, often covering the whole of the after-body 

 and alar appendages. Antennae often Jive-jointed. Proboscis- 

 sheath four -jointed. Ocelli two. Each tar sal claw -with an 

 appendage. This, the largest and most important family of the 

 Heteroptera, includes upwards of 4000 species, and an immense 

 variety of forms. It is divided into no less than fourteen sub- 

 families. The species of one of these, Plataspides, are remarkable 

 for their short, broad forms, and the peculiar condition of the 

 alar organs, which are so completely 

 concealed by the great scutellimi that 

 it is difficult to believe the Insects are 

 not entirely apterous. The head is usually 

 inconspicuous though broad, but in a 

 few forms it is armed with horns. 

 Though this sub-family includes upwards 

 of 200 species, and is very widely dis- 

 tributed in the Old World, it has no 

 representatives in America. The Scutel- 

 lerides also have the body covered by 

 the scutellum, but their organs of flight 

 are less peculiar than they are in the 

 Plataspides ; the Insects of this sub- 

 family are highly remarkable on account 

 of their varied and frequently vivid coloration ; some of them 

 are metallic, and the colour of their integuments differs greatly 

 in some cases, according to whether the specimen is wet or 

 dry ; hence the appearance after death is often very different 

 from that of the living specimen. These Insects are extremely 

 numerous in species. The sub- family Phloeides (Fig. 259), on 

 the contrary, includes only three or four South American 

 species: they have no resemblance at all to other Pentatomidae : 

 they are flat, about an inch long, and look like scales of bark, 

 in this respect agreeing with Ledra and some other Homoptera. 

 The South American sub-family Cyrtocorides (Fig. 260) is of 



VOL. vi 2 N 



FIG. 259. Phloea corticata. 

 South America. 



