Hl\ni;i:kfori): Xepid.k in Amkkica. 433 



county, Texas. Three were taken in New Orleans, La., and belong 

 to Dr. Carl Drake; and one from tlie state of Coloma, Mexico, is in 

 the United States National Museum. The species is named in honor 

 of Dr. Carl Drake, who believed the species to be new as long ago 

 as 1916. but who nc\-er found time to study the matter thoroughly. 



Cvricta drakeij while measuring as long as C. houmrdii, is a much 

 more slender species, and appears smaller. Indeed, comparing the 

 males of the two species, there is a considerable difference in size 

 and shape. The anterior lateral lobes of the pronotum are much 

 more prominent in C. houmrdii, the sides of prothorax, therefore, 

 more curved. The median longitudinal fossa in C. howardii is con- 

 fined to anterior part of the median elevation. The tylus is longer 

 in C. drakei, the antennse are differently formed (see figures 7 and 8 

 on plate XLVII), and the mietasternal plate is smaller. This new 

 species differs from C. voire tni Montd. from Mexico by its smaller 

 size (C volxemi is 241^ mm. long without appendages), by the tooth 

 on the front femur being conspicuously nearer base than apex, while 

 Doctor ]\Iontandon's figure of his species shows the tooth in the 

 middle, or nearer the apex. It further differs from C. volxemi by 

 having the head longitudinally carinate and the scutellum tricari- 

 nate. The thorax is relatively shorter than in C. volxemi, which 

 has a thorax twice as long as wide. The front coxae of C. drakei are 

 much shorter. 



It differs from C. scorpio Stal, which, according to Montandon, 

 lacks the carina on head and scutellum and has the sides of the 

 thorax much as in C. howardii Montd. The longitudinal grooves of 

 the thorax of C. scorpio Stal are less emphasized than in C. howardii, 

 which in turn has them less emphazised than C. drakei. All of these 

 points separate C. drakei from C. scorpio Stal, and are based upon 

 Doctor Montandon's remarks upon the latter species. Champion, 

 in his "Biologia Central! Americana," places Nepoidea montandoni 

 Martin as a synonym of C. scorpio Stal. Joanny Martin, under the 

 title "Descriptions d'Especes Nouvelies de Nepidse (Hem.)," in Bul- 

 letin de la Societe Entomologique de France, 1898, pages 66-68, de- 

 scribes on page 68 his A^. montandoni, and figures the head and 

 thorax on the previous page. C. drakei is unlike this species. Stal's 

 description of C. scorpio is wholly inadequate. 



Genus Ranatra Fabricius 1790. 

 This genus is characterized by its very elongate, slender form. 

 It is the dominant genus of the family Nepidse in North America. 

 Doctor Horvath, in his paper, "Les Relations entre les Faunes 



