32 KEY TO SUPERFAMILIES OF GYMNOCERATA. 



Suborder I. GYMNOCERATA Fieber, 1851. 



This suborder, as above defined, is separated into super- 

 families (groups of families) or families, as follows: 



KEY TO SUPERFAMILIES AND FAMILIES OF SUBORDER GYMNOCERATA. 18 



a. Antennae 5-jointed, ,:: joint 1 thickened, 2 slender; (fig. 6, i) ; ocelli 



present; margin of head thickened above the insertion of an- 

 tennae; scutellum large, often extending beyond middle of abdo- 

 men; length more than 2.7 mm. 



Superfamily SCUTELLEROIDE^, p. 34. 

 aa. Antennae 4-jointed' 4 (disregarding minute ring segments and an- 

 tenniferous tubercles). 



b. Claws all apical; last tarsal joint with tip entire. 



c. Head shorter than pronotum, including the scutellum ; pronotum 

 and scutellum present, the latter sometimes minute. 

 d. Elytra without a cuneus. 

 e. Front legs not raptorial; head rarely cylindrical; prosternum 

 without a median longitudinal stridulatory groove between the 

 front coxae. 

 /. Beak 4-jointed, the first joint often very short. 

 y. Tarsi 3-jointed; body not strongly flattened both above and 

 below. 

 /;. Ocelli present (except in the genus Cnemodus of the family 

 Lygaeidse) . 

 i. Body and appendages not extremely slender; antennae not 



as in it. 

 j. Membrane with numerous more or less anastomosing veins 

 (fig. 6, b) ; antennae inserted high, usually above a line 

 drawn from the middle of the eye to the front end of buc- 

 cuke (fig. 6, k). Superfamily COREOIDEjE, p. 207. 



jj. Membrane with four or five simple veins, usually arising 

 from the base (fig. 6, c) ; antennae inserted low on the 

 sides of the head, usually below or on a line drawn from 

 the middle of the eye to the front end of bucculae (fig. 

 6, /) ; elytra sometimes brachypterous; length variable, 

 less than 15 mm. Terrestrial; mainly phytophagous. 



Family XL Lyg,£ID;£, p. 336. 



'-This key is frankly artificial and the superfamilies as named do not always 

 comprise the same families as are recognized by Van Duzee in his catalogue. 1 have 

 found it impossible to draw up a dichotomous key of the higher groups and super- 

 families as founded by Reuter (1910; 1912b), and at the same time make it in- 

 telligible for beginners. As it is. a number of exceptions are necessary. Many of the 

 families as here isolated possess aberrant characters very different from their allies 

 in the superfamilies to which they are usually ascribed, and therefore of necessity 

 cannot follow consecutively in the key the order in which they appear in the text. 

 The key is based mainly on maeropterous adults, and allowances must be made for 

 brachypterous forms. 



'■'Except in some species of Corimclcena and Amnestus. 



1 ' Five -jointed in the genera Noeogeus of the Nseogeidae and Pagasa of 

 Nabidse ; 8 jointed in Rhiqinia of the Keduviidse. 



