556 FAMILY XIX. — REDUVIIDiE. 



Subfamily V. PIRATING Amyot & Serville, 1843, 321. 



This subfamily comprises large or medium sized species hav- 

 ing the hind portion of head short, subglobose, abruptly con- 

 stricted into a short neck, front portion short, usually more 

 or less deflexed ; eyes large, coarsely granulated ; antennae usu- 

 ally inserted on top of head some distance in front of eyes, 

 their first joint shortest, scarcely or not surpassing tip of 

 tylus ; pronotum constricted much behind the middle, its front 

 lobe much the narrower; elytra often wanting, when present 

 as long as or slightly shorter than abdomen ; front and middle 

 femora more or less thickened, the front, and usually the mid- 

 dle, tibiae ending in a short oval plate which is concave and 

 spongy beneath. Three genera are represented in North 

 America, all in our territory. 



KEY TO EASTERN GENERA OF PIRATIN.E. 



a. Front of head short, deflexed; neck with a small tubercle each side; 

 middle tibia? with a spongy fossa at apex; ocelli narrowly sepa- 

 rated. 

 b. Apical fourth of front tibiae angularly dilated beneath in front of 

 the short spongy fossa; elytra wholly black or piceous. 



I. Melanclestes, p. 556. 



bb. Front tibiae but little dilated near apex in front of the elongate 



spongy fossa ; corium and membrane of elytra with a yellow spot. 



II. Rasahus, p. 559. 

 aa. Front of head long, porrect; neck without tubercles; middle tibiae 

 without a spongy fossa; ocelli widely separated. 



III. SlRTHENEA, p. 560. 



I. Melanolestes Stal, 1866, 251. 



Elongate-oval species possessing the characters above given 

 and having the ocelli placed on slight elevations between the 

 hind margins of eyes; antennae with joints 2 — 4 subequal in 

 length, hirsute with numerous erect hairs and gradually de- 

 creasing in diameter, each double the length of 1 ; front portion 

 of pronotum impunctate, but with a median line, each side of 

 which is a straight and two shorter oblique shallow grooves; 

 scutellum obtusely carinate each side, the carinae merging to 

 form the short obtuse terminal spine ; spongy fossa of front 

 tibiae elongate-oval, very large. Two of the four known species 

 occur in the eastern states. 



KEY TO EASTERN SPECIES OF MELANOLESTES. 



(/. Abdomen wholly black; ocelli small, piceous; elytra often much ab- 

 breviated. 531. picipes. 



