THE SQUASH-BUG FAMILY. 209 



icornia on account of the insertion of the antennae on the upper 

 side of the head above a line projected from the eyes to the 

 base of the beak. They are mainly plant feeders and some of 

 them, as our common squash-bug, often so numerous as to do 

 much damage to vegetation. When distributed almost all of 

 them emit, from the large opening of the stink-gland, copious 

 quantities of a volatile liquid, the odor of which soon per- 

 meates the atmosphere for rods around, being more penetrat- 

 ing and more offensive than in most other Heteroptera. 



The literature pertaining to the species of our fauna is 

 widely scattered, no single work treating of the family as a 

 whole. The principal papers available are as follows : Stal, 

 1867, 1870; Gibson, 1917; Gibson and Holdridge, 1918, 1918a; 

 McAfee, 1919 ; Fracker, 1923. Aside from the Coriscinae 

 (Alydinas) and Corizinae treated in this work as families, but 

 three of the 27 subfamilies are represented in North America, 

 all in our territory. Our eastern species are comparatively few 

 in number, but 38 being at present known. 



KEY TO NORTH AMERICAN SUBFAMILIES OF COREID.-E. 



a. Upper surface not thickly beset with small seta?-bearing granules; 

 first joint of antenna? rarely shorter than head; hind coxa? widely 

 separated. 

 b. Apex of hind tibia? ending beneath in a short projecting spine; 

 fourth joint of antenna? longer than second and third united; 

 hind femora curved, strongly clavate, the basal half very slender, 

 the apical one much thickened and spined beneath ; length less 

 than 9 mm. Subfamily I. Merocorin^e, p. 209. 



bb. Apex of hind tibiae without a projecting spine; hind femora rarely 

 curved and strongly clavate; head much narrower and shorter 

 than pronotum; buccula? reaching behind the insertion of anten- 

 na?; length usually 10 or more mm. 



Subfamily II. Corein^e, p. 212. 

 da. Upper surface, except membrane, thickly beset with small granules, 

 each bearing a short seta; first joint of antenna? shorter than 

 head ; hind coxa? contiguous or nearly so. 



Subfamily III. Pseudophlcein^e, p. 254. 



Subfamily I. MEROCORIN^E Stal, 1870, 125. 



This subfamily, distinguished by the characters given in 

 key, is represented in North America by the single genus: 



I. Merocoris Perty, 1830, 170. 



Cblong-oval pubescent species of medium size having the 

 head small, porrect, much shorter than pronotum, armed above 



