246 The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. II, No. 6, 



ATHYSANUS COMMA VAN DUZEE. (Plate 17, Fig. i.) 



Athysanus comma Van D. Can. Ent., XXIV, p, 114, 1892. 

 Alhysanus comma Osborn and Ball. la. Acad. Sc , IV, p. 223. 1897. 



Form broad and stout ; vertex flat, roundingly right-angled, the anterior 

 margin thick. Elytra long and parallel-margined or short and flaring. 

 Color creamywhite, four spots on the anterior margin of vertex, two at the 

 base and four stripes on pronotum, black. Elytra with a falvous brown 

 band inside the broad, light margins on each side. Length 9 5 nim, $ 4 

 mm.; width, 2 mm. 



Vertex flat, anterior angle a trifle obtuse, anterior margin thick, nearly 

 twice wider than long, three-fourths the length of the pronotum ; profile 

 acutely angled ; front and clypeus almost straight ; front moderately broad 

 above, distant from eyes, scarcely convex, lateral margins almost straight to 

 clypeus. Elytra longer than abdomen, parallel-margined, venation usually 

 obscure except near apex, the inner fork of first sector not forking again or 

 onh' to form a minute cell, apical cells large. 



Color : pale creamy, four quadrate spots shared equally by face and ver- 

 tex, a pair of round ones on base of vertex and four parallel stripes on pro- 

 notum and scutellum, black. Elytra pale with the claval suture, a band just 

 before the apex and a line on the inner branch of first sector, black ; a 

 broad, fulvous, brown band extends around within the margins, broadest 

 behind, its inner limb is divided anteriorly to connect with the stripes on 

 pronotum. Face and below pale, a pair of quadrate spots below the antennae, 

 another pair below the lateral margins of pronotum and a stripe on outer 

 half of the connexivum, black. Legs pale, narrow, dark stripes on anterior 

 sides of all the femora and a pair of broader ones on the inner margin of the 

 posterior tibiae. 



Brachypterous form, elytra shorter than abdomen, obliquel}- truncate, 

 flaring behind, the apical cells reduced to mere rudiments almost in line 

 with the apex of clavus. Color pattern the same except that the transverse 

 bands at the apex are narrower. The last two abdominal segments have 

 four longitudinal, black stripes, and the pygofers have on each side a 

 round, black spot which is connected anteriorly with a stripe forming a 

 comma. The males have another pair of black spots on the lower corners of 

 the pygofers. 



Genitalia : female segment a little longer than penultimate ; the posterior 

 margin roundingly emarginate, with a narrow, black-margined, median .slit, 

 the lateral angles inclined to be produced ; a rounding or bilobed membrane 

 at the apex of emargination. Pygofers short and stout ; male valve large, 

 triangular, apex rounding, sides indented, plates slightly wider than valve at 

 base, narrowing to the middle, then parallel-margined to the nearly truncate 

 apices, twice the length of the valve, equaling the pygofers. 



Habitat : It has been found in Iowa, Neb. , Kans. and in 

 Colorado as far west as the mountains, and also in the mountains 

 of New Hampshire. 



