208 FAMILY VI. — COREIDvE. 



KEY TO FAMILIES OF COREOIDE.E. 



a. Osteolar openings distinct, ::!l located on their peritreme some dis- 

 tance outward from the middle and hind coxa?; both fourth and 

 fifth dorsals of abdomen concavely sinuate at base; color usually 

 dark; length usually 10 or more mm. 

 b. Head much narrower and shorter than pronotum (fig. 41, a) ; buc- 

 culae larger, reaching backward behind a vertical line drawn 

 from the base of the antennae (fig. 6, k) ; form usually rather 

 broad. Terrestrial or thamnophilous; usually phytophagous. 



Family VI. COREID^:, p. 208. 

 bb. Head proportionally much larger, the part between the eyes wider 

 than base of scutellum (fig. 41, /;) ; bucculae very small, lying 

 wholly in front of the base of antennae (fig. 41, c) ; form usually 

 elongate and slender. Terrestrial or thamnophilous; phytopha- 

 gous. Family VII. Coriscid^e, p. 256. 

 aa. Osteolar openings (in our species) absent; fourth dorsal only con- 

 cave at base; color usually pale; length (except in tribe Lepto- 

 corini), less than 10 mm. Terrestrial; phytophagous. 



Family VIII. Corizid^e, p. 270. 



Family VI. COREID^E Leach, 1815, 121. 

 The Squash-bug Family. 



Heteroptera of medium or large size and elongate-oval form, 

 having the head very small, porrect or nearly so; antennae 4- 

 jointed, inserted on the upper part of the sides of the head; 

 beak 4-jointed ; ocelli present ; pronotum quadrangular or sub- 

 hexagonal, widest behind, the front of disk strongly declivent ; 

 scutellum relatively small, triangular, not reaching middle of 

 body, the clavi meeting behind its tip; corium with apex long, 

 oblique, sinuate, its outer apical angle usually acute ; mem- 

 brane but slightly or not surpassing the abodmen, its veins 

 numerous, usually forked, arising from a curved transverse 

 basal vein ; connexivum usually broadly exposed ; osteole pres- 

 ent, its opening large, situated between or near the bases of 

 the meso- and metasternal plates; tarsi 3-jointed, the last joint 

 furnished with pulvilli. Males with a single convex genital 

 plate ; females with sixth ventral slit along the middle to near 

 base and with several small genital plates separated by distinct 

 sutures. 



The family is a large one, nearly 1,600 species, assigned to 

 no fewer than 27 subfamilies, being known, mostly from the 

 tropical regions, where many of them are large in size and of 

 bizarre form. By the older writers they were known as Super- 



SB Except in the genera Tollius and Stachyocnemus of the Coriscidse. 



