THE ASH-GRAY LEAF-BUGS. 447 



Family XIV. PIESMID^ Amyot & Serville, 1843, 300. 

 The Ash-gray Leaf-bugs. 



Small oblong-oval Heteroptera having the head porrect, in- 

 serted in thorax to eyes ; cheeks longer than tylus and usually 

 contiguous in front of it ; ocelli present ; beak 4-jointed, slight- 

 ly surpassing front coxae ; pronotum subquadrate, elevated be- 

 hind the middle, disk carinate, not prolonged backward over the 

 scutellum ; macropterous forms with corium closely reticulated, 

 its discoidal area divided by a longitudinal vein ; clavus and 

 membrane distinct, the former reticulated, the latter finely 

 granulated but without cells; tarsi 2-jointed. 



The family is represented by only a single genus and has in 

 the past often been classed as a subfamily either of the Lygaei- 

 dae or the Tingididae, but is in reality a connecting link between 

 the two. Our North American species have recently been 

 treated by McAfee (1919b). 



I. Piesma Le Peletier & Serville, 1828, 653. 



In addition to the characters above given, the species of this 

 genus have the head wider than long; antenniferous spines 

 prominent, acute; antennae shorter than head and pronotum 

 united, joint 1 stout, not reaching tip of tylus, 2 oval, shorter 

 than 1, 3 slender, as long as the others united, 4 subclavate, 

 pubescent; pronotum narrowed in front, side margins flat- 

 tened, disk with five low but distinct carinae, the middle one 

 anterior, shorter than the others ; thorax on under side of front 

 portion of pronotum hollowed out, forming a cavity to the 

 inner wall of which is attached a large mass of muscles; scu-' 

 tellum very small, nodulose at apex ; commissure of clavus four 

 times as long as scutellum ; elytra covering the abdomen ; mem- 

 brane with four oblique cross-veins. Of the ten nominal spe- 

 cies recognized by McAfee only one is known from the eastern 

 states. 



403 (636). Piesma cinerea (Say), 1832, 27; I, 349. 



Oblong-oval. Dull gray or straw-yellow, more or less mottled with 

 brown or fuscous, the elevated hind lobe of pronotum often almost 

 wholly brown; costal margin of elytra alternated with pale and dark; 

 antenna? and legs dull yellow, the fourth antennal and claws darker. 

 Pronotum narrower in front than behind, side margins broadly shal- 

 lowly emarginate near middle; disk densely rather coarsely punctate, 

 the carina? distinct. Length, 2.7—3.2 mm. (PI. IV, fig. 2). 



