SUBFAMILY II. — MEZIRIN^. 325 



KEY TO NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF NEUROCTENUS. 



a. Apex of head not apparently cleft, the cheeks rounded and contigu- 

 ous in front of tylus. 

 b. Color blackish-brown ; scutellum without trace of carina on apical 

 half; smaller, length, 4.5 — 6 mm. 258. simplex. 



bb. Color dark reddish-brown; scutellum with a faint median carina 

 on apical half; larger, length 5.5 — 6.5 mm. 259. elongatus. 



a«. Apex of head distinctly cleft in front, the cheeks surpassing tylus, 

 not contiguous in front of it. 

 c. Abdomen broadly ovate; hind portion of scutellum granulate, not 

 rugose; length, 6 — 7 mm. 260. pseudonymus. 



cc. Abdomen with sides parallel ; hind portion of scutellum distinctly 

 transversely rugose; length, 5.8 — 6.2 mm. 261. hopkinsi. 



258 (408). Neuroctenus simplex (Uhler), 1876, 323. 



Oblong-oval. Dark reddish-brown to blackish, finely and densely 

 granulated ; membrane usually whitish-hyaline with two fuscous stripes, 

 often in great part clouded with fuscous ; beak, apical half of fourth 

 antennal, coxae and tarsi dull yellow. Head about as long as wide, tylus 

 reaching apex of first antennal; antenniferous spines short, conical, acute, 

 divergent; antenna? short, stout, third joint slightly longer than second. 

 Pronotum trapezoidal, the side margins straight, oblique from apex to 

 basal third, thence subparallel to base; disk finely and unevenly granu- 

 lated, the front portion usually with three or four small oval, slightly 

 raised nearly smooth spaces. Scutellum broadly triangular, evenly and 

 densely granulated throughout. Male with genital segment short, swollen, 

 bluntly rounded, impressed above. Length, 4.5 — 6 mm. 



Frequent throughout Indiana, March 5 — Oct. 10 ; Dunedin 

 and Cape Sable, Fla., November — April (W.S.B.). Numerous 

 stations in New York and New Jersey (Davis). This is in both 

 Indiana and Florida the most common of our "flat-bugs," oc- 

 curring sometimes by hundreds beneath the bark of red and 

 black oaks in the former State and beneath that of water oak 

 and pine in the latter. It is also often beaten from bunches of 

 Spanish moss and has been swept from the flowers of asters 

 and other Compositae in autumn. Heidemann (1904a, 162) 

 says of it : "This is the commonest species of the Aradids 

 known in the United States. Fresh specimens have the mem- 

 branous parts of the elytra silvery-white with a short dark 

 streak at base, sometimes running down to the middle and 

 forming an irregular spot." Osborn states that it is sometimes 

 taken in Ohio under bark of beech. Barber records it only 

 from Biscayne Bay and Lakeland, Fla., but, judging from its 

 abundance about Dunedin, it must occur throughout the State. 

 The known range of the species extends from Maine and Massa- 

 chusetts west to Missouri and southwest to Florida, Texas and 



