964 FAMILY XXX. — HYDRO METRID^;. 



spines; tips of tarsi and claws blackish. Joints 1 and 2 of antennae dark 

 brown or black, thickly clothed with short, stiff black hairs; 1 nearly 

 three-fifths as long as width of vertex; 2 as in aa of key, four and two- 

 third times the length of 1 ; 3 and 4 filiform, dusky yellow, 3 nearly three- 

 fifths as long as 2, 4 four-fifths the length of 3. Beak reaching first 

 ventral. Length, 3 mm. 



Hollington and New Forest, England, August (British Mus. 

 Coll.). A European species recorded in this country only from 

 Ithaca, N. Y., where it was found on Finns sylvestris L. 



1103a ( — ). Atractotomus magnicornis buenoi Knight, 1923, 461. 



Smaller and more ovate than magnicornis. Color fusco-blackish, not 

 tinged with reddish as there; membrane uniformly fuscous; legs blackish, 

 tibiae slightly paler; ventrals blackish, dusky-pubescent. Joint 2 of an- 

 tenna? in female shorter, only four times the length of 1 ; in male longer, 

 five times the length of 1. Length, 2.5 mm. 



White Plains, N. Y., June 25 {Minn. Univ. Coll.). Known 

 only from there, where it was taken on hemlock and spruce by 

 Bueno. 



Family XXX. HYDROMETRIM] Billberg, 1820, 67. 



The Marsh-treaders. 



Extremely slender bugs having the body linear, subcylindri- 

 cal ; head much longer than pronotum, porrect ; eyes large, 

 placed slightly behind its middle; antennae 4-jointed, filiform, 

 inserted on the sides of the enlarged front of head ; ocelli 

 absent ; beak 3-jointed, very slender, shorter than head, in- 

 serted between the ends of the deflexed cheeks ; pro- and meso- 

 nota subequal in length, slightly wider than head, their sides 

 parallel ; elytra usually absent, when present, elongate, linear, 

 reaching fifth or sixth dorsal ; legs elongate, very slender; tarsi 

 3-jointed, their claws apical. 



The family is represented by a single genus comprising fewer 

 than a dozen described species. They live among the weeds and 

 grasses growing in stagnant water or on the near-by mud or 

 muck flats, and feed mainly upon minute living forms of aquatic 

 life. They walk slowly about over the surface film of water, 

 and when disturbed attempt to conceal themselves among the 

 fallen and tangled vegetation rather than by flight or quick 

 movement. The principal literature treating of our species 

 is by Say, 1832; Uhler, 1884; Martin, 1900; Bueno, 1905, and 

 Hungerford, 1920, 1923. 



