SUBFAMILY IX. — ZELIN^. 579 



553 (789). Fitchia aptera Stal, 1859b, 371. 



Elongate, slender, wider behind middle. Dull straw-yellow; head, 

 margins of front lobe of pronotum and scutellum tinged with fuscous; 

 middle of dorsal surface of abdomen and middle and sides of ventral 

 surface each with a rather wide fuscous-brown stripe. Joint 4 of an- 

 tennae one-half the length of 3. Disk of front lobe of pronotum with 

 two broad obtuse ridges, these not extending back onto hind lobe. Other 

 characters as under generic heading. Length, 12 — 14 mm. 



Lake and Pulaski counties, Ind., April 10 — May 12 ; one speci- 

 men from each. Taken from beneath boards in sandy upland 

 fields (W.S.B.). Aberdeen, N. Car., April 14 (Brimley). Ash- 

 land, Mass., May 2 (Frost). A species of wide distribution but 

 nowhere common, its range extending from Maine west to Utah 

 and south and southwest to Oklahoma and Texas. In New 

 Jersey and New York it occurs in summer on bushes or beneath 

 boards in salt meadows and under hillside stones in spring. Gil- 

 lette and Baker (1895, 59) reported it as "common near Ft. Col- 

 lins, Colo., and in the adjoining foothills during winter, under 

 stones and boards." Two of the five specimens at hand are 

 brachypterous, and the winged one from North Carolina has the 

 apical fifth of all femora piceous-brown. The past records have 

 mostly been under the name Fitchia nigro-vittata Stal, a synonym. 



554 (790). Fitchia spinosula Stal, 1872, 79. 



Of the same form as aptera but averaging longer. Color much the 

 same, the pronotum sometimes with a vague fuscous stripe each side 

 extending back onto hind lobe and the dark stripes of under surface 

 better denned; the dark median stripe of dorsum in the wingless form 

 more prominent. Joint 4 of antennae three-fourths the length of 3. 

 Pronotum with ridges of front lobe extending back onto hind one, the 

 disk of latter more strongly rugose, its two median tubercles widely 

 separated and placed near the hind margin. Other characters as in key. 

 Length, 13—16 mm. 



Vigo Co., Ind., May 3. Dunedin and R. P. Park, Fla., Dec. 

 13 — Feb. 15; sifted from bases of clumps of grass (W. S. B.). 

 Recorded also from Newberry, Fla. Mobile, Ala., Jan. 7 (Ger- 

 hard) . Southern Pines, N. Car., January (Brimlcx). Lake- 

 hurst, N. J., April 30 (Davis). Ranges from Long Island, N. 

 Y., and Indiana south and west to Florida and Texas. Record- 

 ed also by Uhler (1876, 327) from Colorado, but that record is 

 doubtful. Five of the eight specimens at hand are brachyp- 

 terous. As Stal states it is: "/// omnibus partibus corporis non- 

 nihil lougiorc" than aptera, the legs and antennae being nota- 

 bly so. 



