452 The University Science Bulletin. 



in more prominent jugse; in differently formed antennae; in its longer 

 thorax; in the respiratory filaments greatly surpassing the limbs 

 when extended backwards, and in the differently formed claspers of 

 the genital capsule of the male. It cannot be confused with any 

 other of our species. 



Ranatra quadridentata Stal. 



Stal, Ofversigt af Kongl. Vetenskaps akademiens forhandlingar, Arg. 18, 18G1, No. 4, 

 p. 204. 



Original description: 



Grisea, pedibus immaculatis; abdominis dorso sanguineo; oculis modice 

 prominiilis; thorace antice leviter ampliato, subtus bisulcato; alis levissime 

 infuscateiA; femoribus anticis subtus pone medium et prope apicem, licet hie 

 obsolete, bidentatis, intermediis ]:)osticis vi.x aequilongis, his basim segmenti 

 penultimi abdominis vix superantibus; metasterno ut in praecedente. Long. 33 

 to 36 milhm. Mexico. (Mus. Hohn.) Prsecedenti affinis. 



The "preceding" is R. unidentata, from Rio Janeiro, and concern- 

 ing its metasternum he says, 



"metasterno retrorsum fere ad apicem coxarum posticarum producto, seg- 

 mentum ventrale primum tegente, uti videtur postice trilobato, lobis continuis, 

 elongatis, medio convexo, lateraUbus depressis, subarcuatis." 



Notes. Van Duzee's catalogue completely submerges United 

 States records of this species under R. americana Montd.* This is 

 not justified, because Doctor Snow in his list (Trans. Kans. Acad. 

 Sci., vol. XX, pt. 1, p. 153, 1906) was not writing about the insect 

 that Doctor Montandon described as R. americana. I have before 

 me Doctor Snow's insect from San Bernardino Ranch. Cochise 

 county, Arizona, the same thing from Mexico, and a series from 

 Texas. These insects agree splendidly with Doctor Montandon's 

 comparative notes on Stal's species, cotypes of which he has studied 

 carefully. 



When Doctor Montandon described his R. americana (Bui. Soc. 

 Sci. Bucharest, XIX, p. 65, 1910) he gave some remarkably clear 

 notes of comparison between his species and Stal's R. quadridentata. 

 The latter is not so robust, the eyes smaller, not so transverse, the 

 interocular space not so convex; cheeks not so elongate, but not 

 applied so closely against the tylus, which is shorter, making the 

 head before the eyes appear shorter. The median construction of 

 the pronotum is not nearly so marked and the anterior part more 

 cylindrical. I may add that the anterior part of the prothorax is 

 longer proportionally, the legs are longer and metaxyphus longer. 



* Van Duzee's catalogue, quadrinotato. Doctor F. H. Snow published a list of the in- 

 sects taken by him in Arizona, and listed R. quadridentata Stal as one of them. 



