226 NORTH AMERICAN BLATTIDAE 



blackish brown. Every kind of gradation between these extremes 

 is shown by the series before us. 



9 . Dorsal surface blackish brown, usually with a bracket- 

 shaped area of ochraceous-tawny mesad on the cephalic margin of 

 the pronotum. Exposed ventral surface of pronotum, mesonotum 

 and metanotum, ochraceous-orange. Limbs and ventral surface 

 of abdomen liver brown, the abdominal segments mesad, excepting 

 the subgenital plate, polished claret brown. 



Ootheca. — A single ootheca is before us, measuring 9.4 by 5.5 mm. 

 The moderately convex sides are polished, with numerous, very 

 delicate, longitudinal ridges, while toward the suture, weak con- 

 vexities indicate the six pairs of egg cells contained within. The 

 ventral margin is straight, directed moderately upward at the 

 extremities. The suture is formed by a very delicate, high ridge, 

 with margin straight, microscopically roughened by regular and 

 extremely numerous, minute ridges, which run obliquely to the 

 base of the suture on its sides; at one extremity this suture is 

 abruptly terminated, forming a right-angle and in this portion ex- 

 tending to the mesal portion of the extremity of the ootheca, at the 

 other extremity it curves strongly ventrad. 



At Brownsville we found the species locally numerous under 

 debris and leaf mould under mesquite trees, and in rats' nests, Neo- 

 toma sp., in the jungle brush of the river plain. 



The easternmost records for the species are Dallas, Waco, Vic- 

 toria, Corpus Christi and Brownsville, Texas, while the western- 

 most records are Bosque County, Kerrville and Pecos High Bridge, 

 Texas.^^° 



Specimens Examined: 107; 56 males, 25 females and 26 immature individuals. 



Dallas, Texas, (J. Boll), i c^, probably taken with type, [U. S. N. M.]. 



Waco, Tex., VII to X, (Belfrage; common at light), 9 o", [M. C. Z.]. 



Bosque County, Tex., IX, 14 to X, 15, (Belfrage), 9 6", [M. C. Z. and Hebard 

 Cln.]. 



'"oScudder and Cockereil's record of this species from Las Cruces, New Mexico, 

 .applies properly to a specimen of A. erratica which is now before us. Saussure's record 

 from "New Mexico" is very probably attributable to the same species, for recent very 

 considerable field work, in Texas west of the Pecos and in southeastern New Mexico, 

 has not produced a single specimen of the present species. Rehn has recorded males from 

 Round Mountain, Texas, several times, and females from Austin, Texas, as this insect; 

 the specimens upon which these records were based are before us and likewise represent 

 large examples of A . erratica. 



