THE TOAD BUGS. 1027 



the front of body therefore appearing as if truncate or squarely 

 cut off ; eyes small, renif orm ; ocelli distinct, each set on a small 

 interocular tubercle ; pronotum short, very broad, the disk with 

 median portion convex, uneven, sides strongly flattened ; elytra 

 wholly coriaceous, closely united along a median straight line, 

 the usual divisions wanting, the costal margins expanded near 

 base to form a short broadly rounded lobe ; scutellum with basal 

 portion very short, nearly one-half as wide as pronotum, sepa- 

 rated from the much narrower apical portion by a sinuate 

 transverse groove, the apical portion forming a tongue-like 

 wedge between the bases of elytra, its apex narrowly rounded ; 

 front legs short, femora very stout, broadly and shallowly 

 grooved, the front margin of groove evenly widened and armed 

 with a row of numerous close-set, very short denticles, the hind 

 margin of groove scarcely raised ; front tibiae slender, cylindri- 

 cal, feebly curved, the tarsal joint very short, the long curved 

 acute single claw appearing as if united to the end of tibiae ; 

 middle and hind legs slender, each with two tarsal claws ; mid- 

 dle tarsi 1-jointed, hind tarsi 3-jointed, the third joint as long 

 as the others united ; meso and metasterna each with an erect 

 tubercle which is compressed or laminate on three sides at 

 base. 



This genus differs from Nerthra by the characters given in 

 key as well as a number of those set forth above, and from 

 Mononyx by the elytra being wholly coriaceous without clavus 

 or membrane, not overlapping as there, but meeting in a 

 straight sutural line. With Nerthra Say, it forms the subfamily 

 Nerthrinae Kirkaldy (1906, 149) while Mononyx alone of our 

 North American genera belongs to the subfamily Mononychinse 

 Fieber. The generic type and only species is : 



1170 ( — ). Glossoaspis brunnea Blatchley, 1925, 51. 



Subquadrate, broadly rounded behind. Color above a nearly uniform 

 dark brown, when living coated with an earthy incrustation; sides of 

 pronotum, apical portion of scutellum, tubercles of elytra, posterior half 

 of each connexival, sterna and femora wholly or in great part dull yel- 

 low; abdomen, tibiae and tarsi dull fuscous-brown, the posterior apical 

 angle of each ventral paler. Beak concealed beneath the strongly deflexed 

 head, its apex visible between the front coxa?. Pronotum two and a half 

 times as wide as long, its transverse impression placed very close to base; 

 side margins straight and subparallel, rounded into base, the apical 

 angles obtuse, slightly prolonged; hind margin trisinuate; disk with 

 sides broadly flattened, median portion with a transverse convexity 

 formed of four broad obtuse tubercles separated by wide shallow grooves, 

 the two median tubercles much the larger. Elytra at base slightly nar- 



