388 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY 



Family NEIDID.E 



The Stilt-Bugs 



The family Neididae consists of a small number of species, which 

 on account of their attenuated forms are very striking in appearance 



(Fig. 449). The body is long and narrow; 

 the legs and antennas are also long and 

 extremely slender. There is a transverse 

 incision in the vertex in front of the ocelli. 

 The antennae are four-jointed, elbowed at 

 the base of the second segment, and with 

 the tip of the first segment enlarged. The 

 beak is four-jointed; and the membrane 

 of the hemelytra is furnished with a very 

 few veins. 



Only eight species of this family have 

 been found in our fauna ; but these repre- 

 sent six genera. Only two of the species 

 are widely distributed in the United 

 States and Canada. These are sluggish 

 insects, found in the undergrowth of 

 woods and in meadows and pastures. 

 Jdlysus spinosMS. — This is the best- 

 known member of this family. It is distributed from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific in both the United States and Canada. It is as slender as a 

 crane-fly (Fig. 449) and of a pale tawny color. The front of the head 

 tapers off to an almost acute, upturned point. An erect spine projects 

 irom the base of the scutelliim, and another from each side of the 

 mesopleura, just in front of the posterior coxse. The body is about 

 8 mm. in length. 



Jalysus perclavdtus. — This is one of the southern members of the 

 family, but it has been found in New Jersey and the District of 

 Columbia. It is smaller than the preceding species; the length of 

 the male is 5 mm., of the female 6 mm. There is an erect spine be- 

 tween the bases of the antennas ; and the last segment of the antennae 

 is shorter and thicker than in /. spinosus. 



Neides mUticus. — Like Jalysus spinosus, this species is found from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific in both the United States and Canada. 

 It lacks the spines of the scutellum and thorax ; and the front of the 

 head is bent down, in the form of a little hom. 



The other representatives of this family in our fauna are found in 

 Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. 



Fig. 449. — Jalysus spinosus. 



Family ARADID^ 



The Flat-Bugs 



The members of this family are very flat insects; in fact they 

 are the flattest of all Hemiptera. They live in the cracks or beneath 



