1022 FAMILY XXXV. — NERTHRID^E. 



with a transverse median groove. Elytra with membrane narrow, feebly 

 differentiated from eorium, but slightly overlapping. Length, 4 — 4.5 mm.; 

 width, 2.2—2.5 mm. (Fig. 204). 



Marshall and Fountain counties, Ind., June (W. S. B.). Fair- 

 fax Co., Va., June 26 (Paris). Described from Virginia and 

 recorded heretofore only from that State and New York. 



1165 (1414). Ochterus flaviclavus Barber, 1913, 215. 



Oblong-oval, smaller than americanus. Color as there except that 

 the entire clavus is pale dull yellow, yellow spot behind front angles of 

 pronotum smaller and submarginal spots of eorium wanting. Pronotum 

 with sides less refiexed, more converging, front angles rounded, front 

 margin narrower than width across eyes ; disk more uneven, humeral 

 angles subrectangular. Length, 3.5 mm.; width, 2 mm. 



Sarasota, Fla., March 2 ; one female taken from beneath the 

 decaying stems of pickerel-weed growing in the muck of a near- 

 ly dry wet-weather pond in open pine woods. Known heretofore 

 only from the unique male type taken by Mrs. A. T. Slosson at 

 Ormond, Fla. 



Family XXXV. NERTHRIDiE Kirkaldy, 1906, 149. 



The Toad Bugs. 



Small squat, very compact, littoral Heteroptera having 

 the front of head subvertical ; eyes bean-shaped, prominent, 

 usually directed upward and outward ; ocelli present, sometimes 

 indistinct ; antennas 3- or 4-jointed, in repose concealed in a 

 cleft beneath the eyes; beak short, stout, 4-jointed, usually 

 concealed by the stout front femora ; pronotum much wider 

 than long, its disk very uneven ; scutellum triangular, its disk 

 when visible, also uneven and granulate ; elytra in great part or 

 wholly coriaceous, its divisions often ill-defined ; membrane 

 when present very short, without visible veins ; connexivum 

 usually narrowly exposed behind the middle ; front legs rap- 

 torial, their femora strongly swollen, broadly grooved for the 

 reception of the tibiae and 1-jointed tarsi, the margins of the 

 groove denticulate ; middle and hind legs longer and more slen- 

 der, their femora not grooved and tibiae and tarsi beset with 

 numerous inclined spine-like setae; middle tarsi 1-jointed, hind 

 ones 3-jointed, the basal joint often very short, tarsi with two 

 claws; mesosternum with a slender, more or less compressed 

 suberect elevation. 



The members of this family are littoral in habits, dwelling 



