OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XV, 1913. 



Leptodictya simulans, new species. 



Body oval-elongate, flat and brownish. Head with five short, whitish 

 spines; the three in front stick close together, making it appear as if there 

 were only one thick, blunt spine; bucculse somewhat convexly rounded, 

 finely reticulated. Antenna? moderately long; basal joint subequal in 

 length with the terminal, both black; the second half as long as the first 

 and dark brown. Eyes black, rather prominent. 

 Pronotum grayish-yellow, finely punctured, with 

 three low whitish carina?; the neck blackish; 

 lateral margins of pronotum distinctly rounded, 

 opaque, yellowish-white, and with two or three 

 rows of areoles. The hood longer than broad, not 

 covering the head, yellowish-white with rows of 

 small areoles, the crest sharply carinate. Elytra 

 oval-shaped, transparent, yellowish-white, strong- 

 ly iridescent; lateral margins from the base to 

 the apical part very feebly rounded but at the 

 apex broadly rounded; discoidal area narrow and 

 long, extending to the middle of elytra, the sur- 

 face of the area a little concave, finely reticu- 

 lated and with a conspicuous black narrow streak, 

 which runs diagonally from the inner margin of 

 the nervure toward the outer one, dividing the 

 discoidal area into two parts; subcostal area with 

 two rows of minute cells; costal margins broadest simulans Heidemann. 

 near the middle, irregularly areolated at the base, 



the areoles small, gradually becoming larger toward the apex, veins some- 

 times more or less infuscated, except at the inner part of the costal margins. 



Length, 3 mm.; width across the middle of elytra, 1.4 mm. 



Described from several specimens, male and females: Old Point 

 Comfort, Virginia, April 19, 1891 (E. A. Schwarz); Drummond, 

 Virginia, June 7, 1905 (H. S. Barber); Alabama, (C. F. Baker); 

 Clemson College, South Carolina (G. G. Ainslie). 



Type; No. 15327, U. S. National Museum. 



This North American tingid seems to belong to a group of 

 species which have the membranous lateral margins of pronotum 

 more or less rounded, instead of distinctly straight as in Leptodictya 

 plana and Leptodictya tabida H. S. 



The species is nearest allied to Champion's Leptodictya cretata 

 from Guatemala, Central America. However, the North Ameri- 

 can species can be distinguished at once by a black, narrow streak 

 that divides the discoidal area into two parts; furthermore, our 

 insect is smaller, the areoles of the elytra somewhat irregularly 

 arranged, and some of the nervures more or less infuscated. The 



FIG. 2. Leptodictya 



