520 FAMILY XVIII. — PLOIARIHLE. 



half and discal cell of elytra largely pale brown flecked with numerous 

 small white dots; apical third of elytra with several vague fuscous spots; 

 connexivum wholly pale straw-yellow; under surface brown, irregularly 

 marked with fuscous, the narrow side margins of each ventral reddish- 

 yellow. Joint 1 of antennae brown with 10 — 12 narrow rings and ex- 

 treme tip, pale yellow; 2 and 3 dull yellow, the basal half of 2 with three 

 or four vague brownish rings; 4 fuscous-brown; joint 2, three-fourths the 

 length of 1, 3 one-third the length of 2, twice as long as 4. Beak and 

 front coxae straw-yellow; front femora yellow with two narrow incom- 

 plete rings and a broader preapical one, brown ; front tibiae with four 

 dark rings; middle and hind legs pale yellow annulate with numerous 

 dark rings, three of those on femora broader than the others. Pronotum 

 with calli of front lobe convex, prominent, set obliquely and with a mi- 

 nute tubercle in the depression between them; hind lobe nearly two-thirds 

 longer than front one, its median ridges low, obtuse, lateral carinas ending 

 in a short outward projecting process. Mesonotal spine long, strongly 

 inclined backward, metanotal one, erect, distinctly shorter. Front femora 

 about twice as long and distinctly stouter than front coxae, the two basal 

 spines distinctly longer and somewhat stouter than the others, the latter 

 irregular in length and thickness. Length, 4 — 5.5 mm. 



Falls Church, Va., Aug. 1 — 22 (Banks). The known range 

 extends from New England west to Pennsylvania and south- 

 west to Virginia. Recorded from a much wider territory, but 

 many of the records under the name of errabundus belong to 

 tuberculatus (Banks), culiciformis De Geer and rubromaculatus 

 (Blackb.). Banks states that it is usually taken on logs, but 

 that he found it on bark of a live tulip tree ; also at light. 



The species as described above, is the Plceariola parshleyi of 

 Bergroth (1922a, 50, 79), and the Empicoris parshleyi (Bergr.) 

 of McAtee & Malloch (1925, 22). It is not the E. errabundus 

 (Say) of the latter authors ; that being the E. tuberculatus Banks 

 described above. My reasons for this opinion can be best set 

 forth by a comparison with Say's original description, which 

 is as follows : 



"This is so closely allied to Ploiaria vagabunda Fabr., that I give it 

 a distinct name with much hesitation ; nevertheless the anterior thighs 

 are somewhat less elongate, with the two basal spines much more promi- 

 nent than the others; the abdomen is immaculate, the ambulations of the 

 feet are much more obvious; the lateral carinate line of the thorax has a 

 prominence like an obtuse spine before: in these characters it differs from 

 the vagabunda; but in the spotted appearance of the hemelytra and the 

 form and magnitude of the scutellar spines it resembles that species." 



In the three characters which I have italicised in Say's de- 

 scription it agrees with the species treated by McAtee & Mai- 



