194 FAMILY V. — PENTATOMID^E. 



teatus. Other characters as given in key and under generic heading. 

 Length, 15 — 20 mm.; width, 8.5 — 11 mm. 



Scarce throughout Indiana, June 20 — Sept. 5. Swept from 

 foliage of shrubs and trees along the margins of open woods 

 and cultivated fields, and taken in the washup of Lake Michi- 

 gan. On June 28, after heavy rains, I once found eight beneath 

 the loose bark of a dead oak on a wooded hillside in Crawford 

 County. It ranges from Quebec and New England west to Da- 

 kota and Colorado and south to Florida, Texas and Arizona. 

 The only Florida record which I can find is that of Barber from 

 Jacksonville, and it probably occurs only in the northern part 

 of that state. 



Of the life habits of this and allied species in New England 

 Kirkland (1898, 114) has written as follows: 



"The adults emerge from their hibernating quarters in the spring at 

 about the time the foliage appears. After feeding for a week or more 

 upon the most abundant caterpillars (of the gypsy and other moths) the 

 eggs are laid on leaves or branches of trees. The young bugs hatch in 

 the course of a week or two, molt four times, reach the imago stage by 

 midsummer and lay eggs for a second brood which matures early in the 

 fall. In passing from the last nymph stage to that of the imago the 

 number of joints of tarsi and antennas is increased by one. Both sexes 

 of the second brood hibernate under leaves on the ground, under the bark 

 of trees and in other sheltered places. Nymphs of cynicus in the last 

 stage have been taken frequently in June, July and August. From their 

 late appearance it is probable that that species has but one annual brood 

 in this region. Both nymphs and imagoes are rapacious feeders, their 

 stout beak being a very formidable weapon. The insect attacked is im- 

 paled by a sudden thrust of the setae which hold it firmly and in a few 

 minutes the body fluids are sucked out. In killing large insects the setae 

 are sometimes wrested from the rostrum, but are readily replaced by 

 the bug. The setae can be moved by muscles at their base and are armed 

 with formidable reflexed spines." 



The predatory habits of cynicus and its nymphs are men- 

 tioned by numerous other authors, Van Duzee (1894, 170) stat- 

 ing that he once "found an adult with its beak deeply inserted 

 in a full grown larva of the Cecropian moth, which it seemed 

 to imagine it could hold by bracing itself and pulling back 

 with all its strength. The caterpillar did not appear at all dis- 

 turbed and possibly the bug might have eaten its fill without 

 inflicting serious injury on its victim." 



Stoner (1920, 122) reports cynicus as scarce in Iowa, the 

 nymphs appearing in July. "On one occasion two half grown 



