158 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



OBSERVATIONS ON SOME NORTHERN DERBIU.E. 



BY E. P. VAN DUZEE, BUFFALO, N. Y. 



The small group of Homopterous insects included by Fabricius in 

 his genus Derbe, but now separated as a sub-family from the other Ful- 

 goridas under the name of Derboides Spinola or Dcrbida, Stal, have 

 always been objects of interest to students of this order, partly on account 

 of their delicate form and peculiar structure, but their almost universal 

 rarity has doubtless added much to their attractiveness. A series of these 

 frail North American forms, differing in several respects from their tropi- 

 cal allies, were first made known in 1819 by Mr. Kirby, who arranged 

 them under two genera — Otioceriis and A?iotia, describing under the 

 former eight, and under the latter one species ; to Otiocerus three species 

 from the United States were added by Dr. Fitch in 185 1 and 1856, and 

 one by Dr. Stal from Cuba, in 1859 ; to Anotia Dr. Fitch added three 

 species in 1856. Thus, as the genera now stands, Otiocerus has twelve 

 North American species, and Anotia four, but future study will probably 

 result in placing two or three of these as mere varieties. As has been 

 stated, Otiocerus was established by Kirby in a paper read before the 

 Linnrean Society of London, in 1819. This paper appeared in Vol. XIII. 

 of the Transactions, published as a whole in 1822, but probably some- 

 what earlier as a separate. In 182 1, Germar, in the fourth volume of his 

 Magazin der Etitomologie, characterized his genus Cobax for a specimen 

 of Kirby's O. Stollii, which he had received from Bahia, describing the 

 species as C. Winthemi. Notwithstanding the fact that he claims the 

 presence of ocelli for his genus, it seems to be equivalent to Kirby's 

 Otiocerus, in which they are apparently absent, and is consequently 

 placed as a synonym. In 1832, Burmeister, in his Handbuch der Ento- 

 nioiogie, redescribed O. Degeerii as Hyiinis rosea, differentiating his genus 

 from Otiocerus by the extension of the elytra at their inner apical angles ; 

 but this character is now considered as of but subgeneric value at most. 

 Genus Anotia was founded by Kirby on a single female example of Bon- 

 neti, and judging from a male in my collection, would seem to need 

 modifying to include both sexes. 



I propose in the present paper, after recording brief observations on a 

 few species of Otiocerus, to describe a pretty little form occurring here, 

 for which I find it necessary to establish a new genus, intermediate in 

 character between Anotia and Mysidia. 



