THE RED-BUG FAMILY. 437 



the first records for that State. Frequent about Dunedin, the 

 nymphs in February. Taken beneath up-ended blocks of freshly 

 sawed pine and by sifting vegetable debris. These Florida 

 specimens average smaller and somewhat darker than those 

 from Indiana. Ranges from New England and New York 

 west to Kansas and southwest to Florida, Texas and New 

 Mexico. 



Family XII. PYRRHOCORID^l Fieber, 1860, 43. 



The Red-bug Family. 



A small family of elongate-oval subtropical or tropical species 

 of stout form, soft texture and usually strongly contrasting 

 colors, black or brown with red or yellow being the prevailing 

 hues. They have the head usually triangular, somewhat de- 

 clivent, inserted in thorax to eyes; ocelli absent; beak 4- 

 jointed ; " antennae slender, 4-jointed ; elytra without a cuneus ; 

 membrane with two large cells at base, these giving rise to 

 about eight branching veins (fig. 6, d) ; tarsi 3-jointed; osteola 

 absent. By many authors the family is treated as a subfamily 

 of Lygaeidae from which its members are distinguished mainly 

 by the absence of ocelli. 



Only about 300 species of Pyrrhocoridae are known, those of 

 the first subfamily largely from the tropical regions of Central 

 and South America, where, says Uhler, "each geographical 

 province has two or three species peculiar to itself." They are 

 plant feeders, usually gregarious in habit, living in colonies 

 upon the foliage, to which they often do much damage. The 

 literature pertaining to them is widely scattered. Van Duzee 

 recognizes 22 species from America north of Mexico, nine of 

 which are recorded from the southern states. These represent 

 four genera, separated as follows : 



KEY TO EASTERN GENERA OF PYRRHOCORID.E. 



a. Sides of pronotum not margined or reflexed ; sixth ventral of female 

 cleft to the base. (Subfamily Euryophthalminse Van D.). 

 b. Head triangular, subdeclivent; eyes shortly stylated, strongly pro- 

 truding; form ovate; front coxa? unarmed. 



I. EURYOPHTHALMUS, p. 438. 



bb. Head subglobose, convex above and beneath; eyes sessile, but little 

 protruding; form narrow, elongate. II. Arhaphe, p. 440. 



aa. Sides of pronotum margined and reflexed; sixth ventral entire in both 

 sexes. (Subfamily Pyrrhocorinse Stal). 



53 In reality 5-jointed, the basal joint very short, almost invisible. 



