672 FAMILY XXIX. — MIRID^E. 



KEY TO EASTERN SPECIES OF MIRIS 



a. Antenna? longer than body, joints 1 and 2 in female not stouter than 

 in male; general color brownish-yellow with black or fuscous 

 markings; brachypterous forms with membrane rudimentary. 



644. DOLOBRATUS. 



ad. Antenna; slightly shorter than body, joints 1 and 2 in female dis- 

 tinctly stouter than in male; general color brownish-pink, male, 

 pale pink, female; brachypterous forms wholly devoid of mem- 

 brane. 645. FERRUGATUS. 



644 (879). Miris dolobratus (Linnaeus), 1758, 449. 



Elongate, feebly tapering from base of elytra toward both ends. 

 Color variable, either dull brownish-yellow with black or fuscous mark- 

 ings, or largely black with elytra paler. In the darker forms, usually the 

 males, the head, antenna;, legs and under surface except sides of abdo- 

 men, are black, thorax with median stripe and lateral edges dull yellow; 

 scutellum black, its apical half paler; elytra dull reddish-brown or brown- 

 ish-yellow with clavus and corium often tinged with fuscous. In the paler 

 forms, usually females, the black parts above mentioned are dull brown- 

 ish-yellow, the only black marks being a forked median stripe on head ; 

 a broad stripe each side of pronotum extending onto mesoscutum, a 

 stripe each side of under surface, some scattered dots on femora and a 

 spot on mesosternum. In both forms the tarsi and apical half of beak 

 are fuscous. All possible variations occur between the extremes of dark 

 and pale forms. Antenna? with joint 1 stout, subcylindrical, feebly 

 curved, as long as pronotum, 2 more slender, more than twice as long 

 as 1, 3 one-half the length of 2, twice that of 4. Other characters as 

 under generic heading. Length, 7 — 9 mm. 



This species is known as the "meadow plant-bug," and in 

 iate spring - and early summer it is the most common Mirid 

 throughout Indiana, occurring by myriads in pastures, 

 meadows and waste places on blue-grass, timothy and other 

 forage grasses, and doubtless doing much damage to them. In 

 central Indiana it winters in the egg stage and the nymphs are 

 very common in late April and May, the first adults maturing 

 about May 20. Osborn (1918) has given a full account of its 

 life history. A brachypterous form, mostly females, in which 

 the elytra reach only the fifth dorsal, is common. It is an 

 introduced palsearctic European species ranging in this coun- 

 try from Quebec and New England west to British Columbia 

 and Minnesota. Not recorded, though doubtless occurs, south 

 of Maryland, New Jersey and Kentucky. 



645 (880). Miris ferrugatus Fallen, 1807, 107. 



Male — Form and size of dolobratus. Head black with a stripe each 

 side of vertex and a narrow line on middle of tylus yellow; collar of 



