SUBFAMILY I. — MEROCORIN^. 



211 



Fig. 42, X 8. (Original). 



Oct. 16; probably occurs sparingly 

 throughout the State {W.S.B.). 

 Palos Park, 111., Oct. 8 {Gerhard). 

 Found in summer and autumn on 

 flowers of the purple milkwort, Poly- 

 gala tnridescens L., goldenrod and other 

 \ \ herbs growing along railways and 



(^ M vflilillV ^ roadsides. Ranges from New Eng- 

 land to Kansas and Oklahoma, and 

 south to Florida and Texas. In Florida 

 it has been recorded from Crescent 

 City and Estero by Van Duzee, but 

 Barber states (1914, 518) that these 

 records are probably based on ex- 

 amples of typhosus. Uhler (1876, 295) 

 says that : "In Maryland it is often 

 common in corners of fields adjoining woods where the weeds 

 and shrubs grow luxuriantly. In such places it may be swept 

 from the plants as late as the middle of October." Parshley 

 (1914, 147) records the taking May 10 at Orono, Me., of 12 

 specimens "as they flew up, one by one, to the dried carcass of 

 a long dead fowl. Some alighted nearby and others disap- 

 peared within the carcass. I was unable to determine whether 

 they came to feed on the juices of carrion or to prey upon other 

 insects, and they may have been attracted merely by the odor. 

 I believe there are few if any records of the frequenting of 

 carrion by Heteroptera." 



151 (236). Merocoris typhous (Fabricius), 1798, 537. 



Differs from distinctus mainly by the characters given in key. 

 Slightly shorter and more slender, color much the same ; pubescence less 

 dense. Head distinctly more prolonged and more narrowed in front of 

 antenna?, the tylus more convex and prominent; antennae more slender, 

 less bristly-haired, the basal joint dark chestnut-brown, shining, almost 

 glabrous, more slender, more curved and more tapering toward base 

 than that of distinctus; apical joint also more tapering toward base, 

 thickest beyond middle, in distinctus of nearly equal thickness beyond 

 the basal fourth. Antenniferous tubercles shorter and less divergent. 

 Pronotum narrower, the sides less convergent with fewer tubercles along 

 the edges; humeri less prominent; disk more even with fewer tubercles 

 than in distinctus. Length, 7 — 8 mm.; width, 2.7 — 3 mm. 



Dunedin, Fla., Nov. 26 — April 16; swept from avocado; also 

 from flowers of the orange milkwort Polygala lutea L., along the 



