[ m) ] 

 p^c^aciou^^ c^ iparaeitic lEncmiee of Bpbi^c6 



(incluMno a Stu&\? of ir^i^pev^parasitcs). 



By H. C. a. Vine. 



Part IV. (concluded) and Part V. 



Plates XIII. (July Part) and XVII. 



"\T 7'HEN completing the drawings for the last part of the 

 V V section on Heteroptcra, some observations led me to 

 think it probable, and indeed almost certain, that another 

 group of this sub-order includes aphis-eating species, and I inclu- 

 ded, therefore, in PL XIII., a drawing of the only European 

 species, the Podisus liiridns of Fabricius. This insect is one 

 of the family, Pentatomidce, and in common with other species of 

 that group, in the larval form, has four joints only in the antenna, 

 while the perfect insect possesses five joints in these organs. 



The majority of the species of this family are inhabitants of 

 the United States, where the favourable surroundings have caused 

 a development of the Hemiptera much beyond any that obtains 

 in Europe, and it was an account given by Professor Eiley of the 

 attacks of several species, and in particular P. sphwsa, upon the 

 larva of the Colorado Beetle {Doryphora lo-lineata, Say), which 

 led me to suspect that some varieties of the family would prove to 

 be aphidivorous. I have since observed that in captivity the 

 species figured will occasionally destroy small, soft insects, and 

 among others aphides, and in view of these facts it may prove of 

 interest to include here some account of the one European species 

 and of the best known of the American varieties. 



The former — Podisus luridus, Fabr. — is figured on PI. XIII. at 

 Fig. 1 1, and it bears a strong resemblance to the genus Tropicor/ns, 

 from which the mature insect may be distinguished by its much 

 shorter and stouter rostrum, and in general by the comparative 

 shortness of the antennae. The colour of the mature insect is 

 dull yellow, ochreous, to brownish, showing a considerable amount 

 of green opalescence or reflection, which becomes the prevailing 

 colour of the head. The margins of the thorax are distinctly 

 green, while the yellowish scutellum is pretty closely punctured 



