448 FAMILY XIV. — PIESMID.E. 



Common throughout Indiana, more so in the southern coun- 

 ties. Found throughout the year, hibernating in colonies be- 

 neath the bark of oak, sycamore and other trees and beneath 

 logs and rubbish near them ; in spring and summer on the 

 rough pigweed, Amaranthus retroflexus L., also on the foliage of 

 sycamore, buckeye, beech and various other plants. Lakeland, 

 Sanford, LaBelle, Ft. Myers, Chokoloskee and Dunedin, Fla., 

 Feb. 9 — April 3 ; taken on foliage of the button-wood, Cono- 

 carpus crecta L., and beneath bark and chunks along the mar- 

 gins of ponds. Recorded from Florida only from Lake Worth. 

 These southern specimens differ from those in Indiana in 

 being of a general paler hue, and in having the cheeks cylin- 

 drical, porrect, or even curved upward and not meeting in 

 front of tylus ; thorax narrower with sides more explanate, 

 very feebly if at all emarginate. They may be known as var. 

 floridana. 



P. cinerea is a species of wide distribution, ranging from On- 

 tario and New England westward to the Pacific and southwest 

 to Florida, Texas and Mexico. It has been recorded by Sum- 

 mers as injuring the leaves and flowers of grapes. Weis & 

 Lott (1924, 233) state that in New Jersey it feeds by hundreds 

 on the flower heads and foliage of the dark green bulrush, 

 Scirpus atrovirens Muhl., and the rough pig-weed above men- 

 tioned, causing the upper surface of the leaves to become mot- 

 tled or spotted with white. A wholly pale form, var. inornata 

 McAfee, one specimen of which is at hand from Indiana, occurs 

 rarely with the typical one. 



Family XV. TINGIDID^ Laporte, 1832, 47. 



The Lace Bugs. 



Small oval or oblong species, having the upper surface retic- 

 ulated, usually in such a manner as to cause the areola? or cells 

 to resemble gauze or lace work, hence the common name. The 

 head is small, triangular ; cheeks shorter than tylus ; ocelli 

 absent ; vertex often furnished with spines ; antennae 4-jointed, 

 the third joint longest ; beak 4-jointed ; pronotum with disk 

 carinate, prolonged backward in the form of a triangular 

 process which in our species covers the scutellum ; elytra more 

 or less reticulated throughout, without distinct clavus or mem- 

 brane (fig. 96) ; disk of corium not divided by a longitudinal 

 vein, its cells membranous, often hyaline ; tarsi 2-jointed. 



