SUBFAMILY II. — CAPSIN^. 735 



n. Cuneus red; second antennal distinctly more slender than basal 

 one; upper surface black, somewhat shining, clothed with 

 silvery silken pubescence. 757. venaticus. 



nn. Cuneus black; second antennal equal to first in thickness; upper 

 surface deep black, opaque, scutellum and elytra clothed 

 chiefly with black pubescence. 758. opacus. 



744 (991). Polymerus BASALIS (Reuter) , 1876, 73. 



Elongate-oval, sparsely clothed with yellow or silvery appressed pu- 

 bescence. General color dull greenish-yellow with variable fuscous or 

 black markings; vertex transversely striate with oblique parallel black 

 lines each side of middle, tylus black, shining; disk of pronotum with a 

 line across the subapical constriction, a small round spot on each callus 

 and two spots, varying much in shape and size, just behind the calli, 

 blackish, these sometimes merging so that the disk is in great part 

 blackish; scutellum pale greenish-yellow, its base and side margins from 

 base to middle usually blackish; elytra with clavus and inner apical 

 half of corium fuscous-black, cuneus in part or wholly reddish; mem- 

 brane translucent fuscous or dusky, its veins paler; first antennal shining 

 black with both extreme base and apex whitish; second reddish-brown 

 with a black ring at base, its apical fourth and third and fourth an- 

 tennals fuscous ; under surface and legs greenish-yellow, the apical third 

 of femora annulate with reddish-brown, tibial spines black; middle of 

 ventrals 1—3 usually blackish in female. Length, 4.5 — 5.5 mm. 



Frequent throughout Indiana, June 5 — Oct. 6. Dunedin, 

 Moore Haven and Canal Point, Fla., Nov. 16— April 10 (W. S. 

 B.). Agricultural College, Miss. (Weed). Occurs in Indiana 

 on foliage and flowers along roadsides and on weeds, especially 

 ragweed and dog-fennel, in meadows. Found throughout Flor- 

 ida, where it is frequent in spring on tall grasses along mar- 

 gins of ponds. It is our most common and most widely dis- 

 tributed species of the genus, ranging from Quebec and New 

 England west to South Dakota and Colorado, and southwest 

 to Florida, Texas and New Mexico. Varies exceedingly in 

 color and also in the amount of pubescence, the majority of 

 cabinet specimens being almost glabrous. Those taken in au- 

 tumn are usually darker than the ones of early summer, some 

 having the entire upper surface, except cuneus, base of corium 

 and tip of scutellum, fuscous-black. On these Knight has based 

 his var. fuscatus 80 *. For a pale form found in the southern 

 states, in which the beak is generally shorter and the eyes of 

 male somewhat larger than those of the north, Knight*" 3 

 has restored the name sericeus Uhler (1877, 422), usually re- 

 garded as a synonym of basalis. Of this Uhler wrote : "In 

 Maryland it may be met with from the first of June to the end 



s "a There has appeared since these pages were in type a paper by Knight (Can. 

 Ent. July. 1926) in which these names were used. In it he also records P. flavo- 

 cuneatus Reut. (1907b, 8). a Jamaican species, from Sanford and Biscayne Bay, Fla. 



