OP THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 113 



with more distinct red and brown lines, with the abdomen paler, and 

 with longitudinal pinkish mottlings. It is a variable species in all 

 stages, and 1 submit below a full description for those interested : 



Nysius destructor. N. Sp. (Fig. 41, c). General color grayish-brown ; of shape 

 of N. thi/mi Wolff. Head either minutely or more coarsely pnnctate, and more or less 

 distinctly pubescent; tlie surface usually brown, with a distinct black, longitudinal line 

 each side, broadening on the crown, but generally leaving the orbit of the eyes pale ; 

 these lines sometimes more diffuse and occupying the whole surfiice, except a median 

 brown spot at base of crown, and a narrow, paler spot on the clypeus ; ocelli piceous ; 

 eyes opaque, either black or slate-color ; face sometimes uniformly pubescent and ap- 

 pearing dark grayish-brown ; but more generally black each side of rostrum, with a 

 distinct yellowish-brown spot on the cheeks below the eyes ; rostrum piceous, paler at 

 base and reaching to hind cox;e ; antenna3 either pale yellowish-brown or darker brown, 

 the torulus and first joint darkest. Thorax, pronotum narrowing- anteriorly, the sides 

 slightly sinuate, irregularly and more coarsely punctate than the head, more or less 

 pubescent, ding}- yellow or brown, with a transverse black baud near the anterior edge, 

 obscuring the incision and leaving the edge pale, especially in the middle, where there 

 is often a conspicuous pale spot; also five more or less distinct longitudinal dark lines, 

 the central one most persistent and leading on the posterior margin to a pale, shiny, 

 impunctate spot ; the callus at hind angles, and sometimes an intermediate spot between 

 it and the median one, and the entire posterior margin, also pale and impunctate; scu- 

 teUum dark, coai'sely punctate, sometimes with a smooth median longitudinal ridge 

 ending in a pale spot, and with the lateral margins pale ; prosternum dark, more or 

 less pubescent, the anterior and posterior margins, and a band outside of coxfo, more 

 or less broadly pale ; mesosternum and metasternum also dark, with the pale spots out- 

 side of coxje. Legs pale yellow, inclining more or less to brown ; cox;i3 dark at base, 

 pale at tip ; trochanters pale ; front and middle femora spotted more or less continently 

 on the outside with brown ; hind femora, c? dark brown, except at tips and base ; $ 

 spotted only ; tibia; ringed with brown at base ; tarsi marked more or less with brown, 

 especially at tip. Hemelytra either colorless, transparent and prismatic, or distinctly 

 tinged with dingy yellow ; shallowly punctate and A^ery finely pubescent, the veins of 

 corium and clavus dingy yellow, with brown streaks, the more constant of these streaks 

 being two on posterior margin of corium, and one at the tip of clavus. Abdomen, c? 

 tergum piceous, with the sutures and the sides of some of the joints rarely paler; 

 venter piceous, minutely and regularly covered with gray pubescence ; 5 sutures and 

 spots on tergum more often pale ; venter dingy yellow, except at base ; $ paler' than 

 cT, and generally larger. Average length 0.13 inch. 



Larva — Dingy yellow, with more or less distinct longitudinal dark lines, especially 

 on head. 



Pupa (Fig. 19, h). Same color, with more distinct red and brown longitudinal 

 lines, and two little tooth-like, pale yellow processes at inner base of hemelytra pads, 

 indicating the w'ings; the abdomen paler than the rest of the body. 



Described from numerous specimens. I have some, especially males, in which 

 the black so predominates that the paler parts of the head and thorax are scarcely 

 traceable, while in others again the pale parts predominate almost to the exclusion of 

 the black. Indeed, so variable is the species that it is difficult to see wherein some of 

 the specimens differ from the European thymi, or froni N. angustatus Uhler, and it is 

 barely possible that future comparison will show specific identity between some or all 

 of the three. But as long as authors fail to give the variation a species is liable to, or 

 the number of specimens a description is drawn up from, it will remain impossible to 

 decide such questions satisfactoi'ily, and I name destructor at the suggestion of our 

 Hemipterist, Mr. P. R. Uhler, of Baltimore, who has examined specimens which I sent 

 him. 



E.R — 8 



