1865.] -81 



a race with auts, aud these would be beaten by Systellonotus. The 

 males were very unwilling to fly, but I found they could be provoked to 

 take wiug. To see the bugs was not now so difficult, but to catch them 

 was, I think, the most arduous task I ever had. For, consider, the 

 creatures were not only incredibly swift, and (except the males) so like 

 the ants with which they were mixed, in form, size, and colour, that it 

 was nearly impossible to distinguish them, but they were also so delicate 

 that they could not be touched ; therefore, the only method of capture 

 was to put the quill of the collecting-bottle over them as they moved ! 



I believe that neither heath nor broom has any connection with the 

 bugs, except so far that these plants shelter the ants, and although the 

 association of the bugs with the ants has not been recorded, it seems to 

 me there can be no doubt that the species is myrmecophilous, for where 

 there were no ants there were no bugs. Are they not also myrmeco- 

 phagous ? This, I think, is indicated by the extreme similarity to the 

 ants of the larva, pupa, and, in the female, the imago, which would 

 enable them to pass uninterrupted into the burrows ; and it is an in- 

 teresting question that some Hymenopterist who will search in the 

 month of May may be able to answer. 



Lee : \Oth June. 



AN ESSAY TOWARDS A KNOWLEDGE OF BRITISH HOMOPTERA. 

 BY THE BET. T. A. MARSHALL, M.A. 



(^Continued from Vol. I., page 275). 



Gen. AR^opus, Spin. 



Separated from Delphax by Spinola (Ann. de la Soc. Ent. de Fr., 

 t. 8, p. 336), upon the following grounds: — (1.) The antennae are 

 inserted at the base or commencement of the sub-ocular cleft, whereas 

 in Delphax their origin is in the centre of the fissure. (2.) The first 

 joint of the antennae (see Generic Synopsis) is longer than the second, 

 compressed, pubescent, and not granulated ; in BelpTiax it is shorter 

 than the second, nearly cylindrical, and more or less distinctly 

 granulated. 



1. — ArcBopus crassicomiSj^ Fab. 



^ . Testaceus, alatus. Pronoti margines laterales nigri. Heme- 

 lytra albohyalina, corpore dimidio longiora. Scutellum, abdomen, 

 utrinque plus minus infuscata. Hemelytra medio liuea nigra notata, 

 quae a basi ad medium usque ducta, in hamum desinit. Maculae tree 



