KEY TO THE NEARCTIC SPECIES OF PARACALOCORIS. 

 (HETEROPTERA; MIRIDiE). 



By W. L. McAtee. 



The genera Calocoris Fieber and Paracalocoris Distant are 

 very closely related if indeed they are not identical. They 

 belong to the sub-family Mirinae and to the tribe Capsini. 

 In these insects the body is not constricted at middle, the 

 cheeks are narrow, hind femora slender, pile of first antennal 

 joint not dilated apically, first joint of tarsus short, last two 

 joints of antenna distinctly slenderer than second, and the head 

 as seen from side about as long as high at base. 



The characters thus far advanced for separating Paracalocoris 

 from Calocoris are not constant, and the writer must leave to 

 someone having ample material of the latter, the problem of 

 ascertaining whether the two groups really are generically 

 distinct. As used in this paper Paracalocoris includes species 

 having the characters above outlined and in addition the 

 following: Pronotum with two discal, subexcavated, velvety 

 black spots, and left clasper of male with a large rounded or 

 pointed lobe on upper side at base. In Calocoris as represented 

 by alpestris Meyer, fulvomaculatus DeGeer, and norvegicus 

 Gmelin; the clasper has no such lobe at base, and in the last- 

 named species is much slenderer throughout. 



Species that have been referred to Paracalocoris, probably 

 erroneously, include two described by Herrich-Schaffer. One 

 of these, Capsus tetrastigma* has been placed in Resthenia by 

 Stal.f The other, Capsus externus,X in the writer's opinion, 

 is not a Paracalocoris. It is true that the two central velvety 

 black spots on the thorax mentioned in the original description 

 suggest that the insect is a member of this genus, but no 

 Paracalocoris has the first antennal joint "as long as head and 

 thorax together," a condition plainly stated in the description 

 and delineated in the illustration of Capsus externus. If the 



*Die wanzenartigen Insecten. Bd. 9. Nurnberg, 1853, pp. 166-167. 

 fHemiptera mexicana enumeravit speciesque novas descripsit. Entomologische 

 Zeitung (Stettin). Jahrgang 23, Nr. 7-9, July-September. 1862, p. 317. 

 JWanz. Ins. 8, 1848, p. 16. 



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