646 FAMILY XXV. — CRYPTOSTEMMATID^E. 



distinctly sinuate near base, feebly curved in front of middle; basal third 

 of disk broadly shallowly concave, the concavity minutely transversely 

 strigose. Length, 2.8 — 3.5 mm. 



Marion Co., Ind., Aug. 15; taken from beneath bark of wil- 

 low. Geronimo, Guatemala (British Mus. Coll.). Described 

 from Texas. Recorded from Pennsylvania, Florida and Mexico. 



Family XXV. CRYPTOSTEMMATTD^ Bergroth, 1914, 148. 

 (Dipsocoridce Dohrn-fS chizopteridce Reut.) . 



The Jumping Ground Bugs. 



Very small oval convex species having the head usually 

 strongly deflexed and immersed in thorax to eyes ; ocelli, in 

 all our eastern species, present but minute; antennae 4-jointed, 

 the terminal joints slender, beset with long spreading hairs ; 

 beak 3-jointed ; pronotum subquadrate, transverse ; scutellum 

 short, triangular ; elytra in our eastern species entire with cos- 

 tal margin thickened and usually reflexed, embolium, clavus 

 and corium present but cuneus and membrane ill-defined, the 

 disk with two or three longitudinal veins reaching the apical 

 margin (figs. 7i 1, 9 and 13) ; inner wings with apical margin 

 notched and disk with simple longitudinal veins as in fig. 3 ; 

 legs short, the coxae often greatly enlarged, tarsi 3-jointed; 

 metapleural osteola absent; exposed ventral segments 5 or 6. 



Our species usually occur in moist places on the ground be- 

 neath dead leaves and other vegetable debris, but sometimes 

 in bunches of moss on trees and rarely on foliage of semi- 

 aquatic plants. When uncovered or disturbed most of them 

 leap with agility. The family is a small one, most of the Amer- 

 ican forms occurring in the tropics. Van Duzee in his Cata- 

 logue included only four from North America, placing them 

 in the families Dipsocoridae and Schizopteridae. McAfee and 

 Malloch, in their recent Revision (1925a) , have combined these 

 families under the name Cryptostemmatidae as proposed by 

 Bergroth. They recognize only three genera and five species 

 from America north of Mexico. Two other genera are now 

 known to be represented in Florida, so that five genera, each 

 with a single species, occur in the eastern states. The princi- 

 pal literature treating of our North American species is by 

 Reuter, 1891; Uhler, 1894a, 1894b, 1904; Heidemann, 1906a; 

 Bergroth, 1914, and McAtee & Malloch, 1925a. 



"ill.- figures cited in key and descriptions of tin- family Cryptostemmatidae refer 



to I bOSe <m plate VI I . 



