— 29— 



Observations on some CAPSIDi'E with descriptions 



of a few new^ species. 



By p. R. Uhler. 



(No. 2.) 



Div. CYLLECORARIA. 

 Pilophorus, Hahn. 



This genus was separated by Halin in his Icones ad Monog. Cim. 

 I, No. 23, to contain a European species the Capsus hifasciaius Fab., 

 which is also a synonym of Ciniex clavatus Linn. Since then two other 

 species have been recognized, and all three have been placed in another 

 genus {Camaronotus) by Fieber, in his Europaischen Hemiptera. Still 

 later, Douglas and Scott in their British Hemiptera have gone so far as 

 to base a family upon this genus, to which they have given the name 

 Camaronotidce. North America is not less well provided with represen- 

 tives of this genus than is Europe, and unless we are mistaken in the value 

 of the characters employed to separate them, the United States has more 

 species than the old world. Dr. O. M. Renter has recently studied the 

 European forms of the Capsiihe, and with a larger amount of material 

 than has been before any previous Hemipterist. Accordingly, with a wider 

 view than any of his predecessors, he has deemed it more accurate to 

 arrange this Pilophorus, in company with Mimocoris, Myrmicommus, 

 Cremnocephalus, Ethelastia, Systellonotus, Lcemocoris, Era/icon's, etc. , 

 in a division Pilophoraria. 



The genus Pilophorus has such a different facies from any of our 

 other known Capsidce that it would seem to be recognizable at once by 

 the shape and adjustment of the head alone. The Ant-like form of the 

 body, especially in the nymph, together with its habit of rapidly coursing 

 over the bark of trees renders it liable to be mistaken for one of the small 

 red or brown Formicida;. Our American species differ much in the width 

 of the body, the females being more robust than the males, but they are 

 all more or less spindle-shaped, contracted across the basal half of the 

 hemelytra. They have a broad head which curves back beyond the sides 

 of the swollen pronotum, sits close against it, is of a conical form, scooped 

 out behind and below there is a high carina connecting the eyes, and the 

 face is very sloping anteriorly. The males usually have a more parallel- 

 sided prothorax than the females. 



I. P. confusus Kirsclib. Rhyncliot, Wieshatlen, p. 133, 9. 



I'his species agrees almost exactly with the insect so named by 

 Kirschbaum, of which I have several examples received direct from Meyer- 

 Diir of Bergdorf, Switzerland, and which were determined by him to be 

 the true P. coji/usus. 



Entomologica Americana. Vol. hi. 5 May, 1887, 



