178 FAMILY V. — PENTATOMID^E. 



(1894, 176) states that it is "distributed from northern Brazil 

 through Central America and Mexico into the southern Unite:! 

 States and the Antilles. It is variable to a marked degree in 

 the distribution, depth and coarseness of the punctures, the 

 length of body and the convexity of pronotum. When alive the 

 color is grass-green above with the corium more or less bright 

 wine-brown." 



Subfamily II. ASOPIN^ Spinola, 1850, 29. 



Pentatomids varying much in form, size and general appear- 

 ance, but all agreeing in having the head porrect or nearly so ; 

 cheeks rarely (Rhacognathus) much longer than tylus; beak 

 stout, passing middle coxae, its front joint thick, broad and 

 deeply grooved, much longer than bucculse, its base contiguous 

 to end of tylus (fig. 18, b) ; bucculag very short, converging or 

 meeting behind and beneath the basal joint of beak ; front tibia? 

 with a short spine near middle of inner side ; tarsi 3-jointed. 



The subfamily is represented in the United States and Can- 

 ada by 11 genera and about 30 species. Of these ten of the 

 genera and 22 species are known from our territory. The 

 majority of these are predatory upon plant lice, caterpillars 

 and other soft-bodied injurious insects, and are therefore of 

 considerable economic value. 



KEY TO EASTERN GENERA OF ASOPIN^. 



a. Front femora armed beneath at apical third or fourth with a short 

 spine or acute tubercle; ventrals 4 — 6 of males (except in Alcseor 

 rhynchus) with a large oblong silky pubescent spot each side of 

 middle. 

 b. Scutellum broad, U-shaped, its tip twice or more the width of 

 corium, frena about one-fourth its length. I. Stiretrus, p. 179. 

 bb. Scutellum much narrower, its tip at most scarcely wider than 

 corium, frena one-half or more its length. 

 c. Humeral angles of pronotum ending in a prominent upward and 

 outward projecting spine, males without pubescent spot near 

 middle of ventrals 4 — 6; larger, length 18 or more mm. 



II. Alc^orrhynchus, p. 183. 

 cc. Humeral angles obtusely rounded ; males with pubescent spot on 

 ventrals; smaller, not over 14 mm. 

 d. Spine of second ventral reaching middle coxa?. 



III. Oplomus, p. 184. 

 dd. Spine of second ventral scarcely reaching hind coxae. 



IV. Perillus, p. 185. 



