THE SHIELD-BACKED BUGS. 43 



Dunedin, Bradentown, Royal Palm Park and Cape Sable, Fla., 

 Nov. 18 — Aug. 12. Probably occurs throughout that State, as 

 Barber records it from eight different stations. Ranges from 

 southern Florida to Arizona, Texas and California. Originally 

 described from Martinique and known also from Mexico and 

 Grenada. About Dunedin it has been taken sparingly from the 

 axils of thistle leaves and by sweeping herbage in low sandy 

 glades and along the bay front. The fuscous markings of the 

 upper surface are extremely variable in extent and character, 

 but the majority of specimens are darker in hue than those of 

 allied forms. 



V. Symphylus Dallas, 1851, 37. 



Broadly oval, moderately convex species having the head 

 triangular, about as broad as long; second antennal slightly 

 longer than third, fourth and fifth subequal, each one-half 

 longer than third ; beak reaching to or slightly beyond base 

 of second ventral, its second segment but little longer than 

 third ; pronotum subhexagonal, its front portion strongly de- 

 clivent, lateral angles more posterior than in Diolcus, its front 

 side margins longer and not reflexed as there ; scutellum less 

 convex, its apical third flattened and strongly declivent ; em- 

 bolium of elytra wholly exposed ; stridulatory area of abdomen 

 very large, covering most of the central part of the fourth and 

 fifth and the base of the sixth ventrals. 



This genus is closely related to both Diolcus and Stethaulax. 

 From the former it may be readily known by the presence of 

 the osteolar canal and from the latter by the relatively longer 

 third joint of beak and steep declivity of scutellum, this, in our 

 single species, being distinctly carinate. Eight species are 

 recognized by Stal (1867, 495), all from Tropical America and 

 the West Indies. One of these, not included by Van Duzee in 

 his Catalogue, occurs in Georgia and Florida. 



7 ( — ). Symphylus deplanatus (Herrich-Schfeffer), 1839, 3. 



Upper surface dull reddish-brown, sparsely and rather finely punc- 

 tate and usually more or less marked with fuscous, this sometimes form- 

 ing large irregular blotches on basal half of thorax and a vague oblique 

 stripe on scutellum, but more often reduced to short broken transverse 

 lines on the latter; declivity of scutellum frequently with a large bilobed 

 black spot covering its upper two-thirds ; connexivum usually with alter- 

 nate pale and fuscous spots, the latter formed of dark punctures; under 

 surface dull yellow, marked with rather small dark brown punctures, 



