BUGS OF THE FAMILY MIRIDAE OF THE DISTRICT OF 

 COLUMBIA AND VICINITY 



By H. H. Knight 



Of l(noa State College 



and 



W. L. McAtee 



Of the United States Biological Survey 



The Miridae, formerly known as Caj)sidae, have commonly been 

 called plant-bugs, but it is now known that numerous species among 

 them are predaceous. They are more numerous in species than any 

 other family of Heteroptera and 200 species (counting a single vari- 

 ety to each) and 23 additional varieties have been collected within 

 a 20-25 mile radius of Washington, D. C. This result may be com- 

 pared with the list of 296 species and 53 additional varieties from 

 a much larger area, the entire State of New York,^ The District of 

 Columbia list contains 57 species that are not represented in the 

 New York catalogue, and the latter has 153 species that are not in 

 the former. There are 144 species common to the two lists. 



For the benefit of those interested in the fauna of Plummer Island, 

 Md., it may be said that 88 species and 8 additional varieties of 

 Miridae have been collected on the island, and 43 other species and 

 7 varieties in the Great Falls-Little Falls section of the Potomac 

 River valley. When not made clear by the wording of the text, 

 these features of local distribution are indicated by the abbreviations 

 P. I. and V. P. L 



The list includes records of all available specimens in the collec- 

 tions of the United States National Museum, of the United States 

 Biological Survey, the private collections of the authors, and the 

 Otto Heidemann collection in Cornell University. Records from 

 the collection of the University of Helsingfors where there is much 

 material sent to Dr. O. M. Renter by Heidemann have been tran- 

 scribed for us by Dr. Hakan Lindberg to whom we are greatly in- 



'Mem. 101, Cornell Agr. Exp. Sta., 192S, pp. 110-134. 



No. 2784.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 75. Art. 13. 



33072 — 29 1 1 



