AMERICAN HEMIPTERA. 15 



Hoinceiiius proteiiM Stal. 



I am indebted to the generosity of Prof. H. F. Wickhani for 

 three strongly marked Texan specimens of the " var. d," as described 

 by Stal in Stet. Ent Ziet., xxiii, p. 82, 1862. I can find no other 

 record of its having been found within our territory except in Prof. 

 Osborn's List of the Hemiptera of Iowa. It is just possible that 

 this reference is an error either of determination or locality. I 

 have in my collection one specimen of "var. a" Stal, taken in 

 Costa Rica. The recorded southern range of this s{)ecies reaches to 

 Columbia. More recently Mr. Henshaw has informed me that the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology has an example taken at St. Bar- 

 bara, California. 



This species exhibits the same range of variation in marking tliat 

 we find in the other species of Homcemus, Sphyrocoris, Symphylus, 

 Diolcus and, in a modified form, in Eurygaster. From HcvKeinus 

 (eneifroiis and bijugis it differs in being smaller, more convex above; 

 the scutellum is broader behind the middle but narrower at tip; the 

 head is broader and more convex toward the apex, with a pirie 

 stripe down the middle of the tylus and a broader one on each 

 cheek, at apex separated from the median vitta by the narrow 

 black margins of the tylu.s. The pronotum is more convex, especially 

 toward the sides, which are straight and very narrowly reflexed ; 

 the humeral angles are less prominent ; the elytra, when spread, 

 show a large angular black spot interior to the apex of the coriaceous 

 portion which is not indicated in the allied species. Beneath the 

 colors are much darker and the posterior half of the lateral margin 

 of each segment is black. 



Sphyrocoris obliqiiU!<» Germ. 



Most of my material in this species has been received from Hayti 

 and Costa Rica, but I have seen a few specimens taken in southern 

 Florida by Mrs. Annie Trumbull Slosson, and Dr. Uhler recoi'ds it 

 from x\rizona. This insect presents the same general pattern of 

 marking seen in Homoemus miielfrons and bijugis. 



Genus Sphyrocoris may be distinguished from Ho>iiieiiiU)i by its 

 having the osteolar canal broadly expanded and bent at right angles 

 towartl the apex, the surface there being punctured and the borders 

 ill defined from the surrounding disk of the metapleura. In Ho 

 mminua, while the apex of the osteolar canal is sometimes quite ab- 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC XXX. JANUAKY. 1904 



