March, 1916] Homopterous Studies. Part I 189 



It is closely related to Athysanus exitiosus, a form which 

 is most common and of great economic importance in the 

 United States. Morphologically the two agree in many 

 characters, and show similar variations. The North American 

 form is undoubtedly a tropical one, which has gradually 

 migrated from Central America to the north, its food habits 

 changing with time and the propagation of cereal crops. 

 Similarly the African form is probably of tropical ancestry, 

 and has gradually spread from the equator southward till it 

 reached the coastal region. The cases are parallel in point and 

 are of interest on that account. While it may seem a far 

 stretch of imagination to consider a common ancestry for the 

 two species, yet such a conjecture would seem feasible, in view 

 of the land connection which once existed between Africa and 

 South America. 



Habitat: Rondebosch, C. P. (Stal), Cape Town (Mally), 

 Grahamstown (Cogan), De Aar, C. P. (Cogan), Mauritius 

 (Stal), German East Africa, Amani, Sigital, Tanga, Bomole, 

 Kiboteni (Melichar). 



Athysanus aethiopica sp. n. (PI. VII, Fig. 2). 



General color greenish white, with a varying amount of 

 brown or black on the face. Length 3. mm. Breadth about 

 1 mm. 



Female: Vertex whitish with an irregular black marking at the 

 apex, not quite as long as the width between the eyes; ocelli colorless, 

 eyes greenish. Face yellow, but prominently marked with black; frons 

 yellowish white, except for the strong black arcs, about twice its length 

 next the clypeus; loras yellow with the sutures brown to black; cheeks 

 yellowish green; clypeus one and a half times as long as its width next 

 the frons, yellow with brown on the middle; rostrum brownish black. 

 Pronotum greenish, broadly rounded between the eyes, a little shorter 

 than the vertex, faintly transversely striated; scutellum yellowish, not 

 quite as long as the pronotum. Sternum black. Elytra a little longer 

 than the abdomen, semi-transparent, light greenish white in color. 

 Abdomen above black with the borders yellow, beneath yellow but 

 with black for the base and the middle. Genitalia : last ventral segment 

 whitish, more than twice as long as the penultimate; posterior margin 

 slightly curved inward and produced on the middle; pygofers long and 

 slender, two and a half times as long as their width at base; ovipositor 

 brown at the tip, a little longer than the pygofers; ovipositor brown at 

 tip, a little longer than the pygofers. 



Male: General color the same as female; the brown coloration is 

 perhaps more prominent on the males. Black marking on the vertex 

 not as evident. Abdomen entirelv black on dorsal and ventral sur- 



