PS re HE. 



[M:iy — ^June 1SS3. 



THE TARSAL AND ANTENNAL CHARACTERS OF PSOCIDAE. 



ny HERMANN AUGUST HAGEN, CAMISRIDGE. MASS. 



LRoprint rroni Entom. mo. mas 



1>\' .'I mere cluincc I see th:it a .state- 

 ment recently pulilished bv me concern- 

 ing the tarsal structure of psocidae 

 confirms, in a most satisfactory manner, 

 that made b}' Prof. Westvvood in 1S57 

 (Proc. Ent. soc. Lond., series 3, vol. 

 iv, pp. 63, 64) regarding certain coleo- 

 pteia. 



Being occupicil with tlie atrophia., I 

 was astonished to liinl that the young 

 forms have only two-jointed tarsi (in- 

 stead of three-jointed, as is found in 

 the imago), but the last joint, internally, 

 in the middle, shows a more or less 

 visible division, where the 3rd joint 

 (the median.) will be formed, and just 

 below it are one or two small bristles. I 

 have observed this in A\_ti-opos'\ dlvin- 

 a tori a (reared bv myself), sited nica. 

 and olcagina, and also in Hypcrctcs 

 tcssc/latus. So long as the young have 

 only two-jointed tarsi, the antennae have 

 also less joints. Thus, in A. diviiiatc- 



.. June 1S82, V. 19. p. i:;-i3.] 



ria the latter have only 12 instead of 

 the 15 of the imago ; in Hypcrctcs the 

 proportions are 13 to 33. But, although 

 the third (middle) joint of the tarsi is 

 produced by a division of the apical, 

 it is just the contrary with the antennae* 

 In these the two thick basal joints, and 

 the apical joint are not divided ; but in 

 some species all the intermediate joints 

 are so. Hyperetes is in the latter case, 

 all the 10 intermediate joints being divi- 

 ded in the imago, as I can show from 

 prepaiations. It is a remarkable fact 

 that the mvstevious Hvperetcs shows, in 

 its earlier stages, precisely the normal 

 number (13) of joints for the psocidae. 

 I am not prepared to give an opinion 

 as to this genus. Other genera, such 

 as Caecilins., commonlv considered to 

 have onlv two-jointed tarsi. ])ossess a 

 small aborted third joint, just as occurs 

 in many coleoptera. 



C;iml)ricii;e, Muss., ist April, 1SS2. 



The Chigoe in .;\r-RicA. — It is sta- 

 ted in Burton and Cameron's " To the 

 Gold Coast for Gold" that the chigoe 

 ( Pulcx penetrans^ has been recently 

 introduced and has spread all over the 

 West African seaboard and far into the 

 interior. At the time of Captain Bur- 

 ton's first visit (1S62) it was md<n(>\\ u 



on the west coast ; but now it ranks 

 with the indigenous red, wliite and 

 black ants, centipedes, scorpions, veno- 

 mous spiders and flies of the tzctzc 

 group, as among the chief |)lagucs ot" 

 that region. — Amcr. iialiiralist . Jime 

 1SS3, v. 17. p. 664. 



