582 



FAMILY XIX. — REDUVIID^E. 



556 (796). Arilus cristatus (Linnaeus), 1763, 16. 



Elongate-oval, very robust. Color a nearly uniform dark fuscous- 

 brown, everywhere except on membrane thickly clothed with short fine 

 grayish pubescence; antennas, beak, tibiae and tarsi reddish-brown. 

 Joints 1 and 3 of antennae subequal in length, 2 and 4 also subequal, 

 each about one-third the length of 3. Joint 1 of beak slightly longer 

 than 2 and 3 united. Crest of pronotum with eight to twelve tubercles, 

 the two or three in front usually bilobed ; sides of pronotum behind the 

 humeral angles not dilated. Margins of the abdomen distinctly sinuate. 

 Length, 28—36 mm. (Fig. 144). 



Fig. 144. Eggs, nymphs and adults, the latter life size. (After Riley). 



Knox, Posey, Crawford and Jefferson counties, Ind., June 10 

 —Oct. 27; Dunedin and R. P. Park, Fla., March 25— Dec. 12. 

 The four Indiana specimens at hand were taken while resting 

 on dead leaves, either on the ground or on shrubs along path- 

 ways in hillside woods. Two of those from Dunedin were taken 

 at light ; three were beaten from bunches of dead leaves, while 

 the Park specimen was swept from roadside herbage. But two 

 of the nine are males. This is the well-known "wheel-bug" of 

 the southern states, so called on account of the peculiar semi- 

 circular crest of the pronotum. Its known range extends from 

 New York west to southern Illinois and southwest to Florida, 

 Oklahoma, Texas, Mexico and Guatemala. Barber records it 



