hungerford: aquatic hemiptera. 47 



G. Oculatus Fabr. 1798. 



Fabricius, Ent. Syst. Suppl. p. 525. 



G. oculattis is the only one recorded as general in distribution. The 

 others are neotropical. This widely distributed species has been taken 

 in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, 

 Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Carolina, District of Columbia, 

 Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. The original de- 

 scription of this species is very short and inadequate. Uhler says: 



Our Galgidus ociilatus is a variously tinted chunk of insect entity, 

 thick in front, horizontal, and gradually thinning towards the bluntly 

 curved posterior end of the abdomen. The form thus resembles an Indian 

 hoe or stone skindresser. The sides of the prothorax are expanded into 

 thin, bent lobes, before which the margin is deeply sinuated, and then 

 rises into the smaller, hollowed lobes which fit against the eyes. These 

 lobes are ivory white beneath, and next to them the pleural depi'ession 

 is covered by fine, dense, pale granules on a dark spot. The upper surface 

 is mud-brown of any shade, or it is red if the creature lives in a soil 

 charged wath oxide of iron, or blackish brown in carbonaceous mud, or 

 clear light brown if developed in clean, sandy loam, or flecked with silvery 

 white on a mottled and variegated more or less olive greenish ground, 

 when its birthplace and home are in the micaceous mixed soil. Almost 

 the entire upper surface is closely set with fine raised granules, which 

 give it a velvety appearance in some lights. Occasionally it frequents 

 places where green slime accumulates between the stones near the bed 

 of a brook, and then it is apt to be covered, and even permanently pene- 

 trated by the bright green color of the algae. The legs are pale yellow, 

 banded with brown; the stout, compressed fore thighs are generally 

 brown, interrupted by short, yellowish, transverse marks, the underside 

 armed with marginal, close set, piceous, short teeth, separated by a 

 longitudinal groove into which the spinous, bent, banded fore tibi« fit. 

 The latter are also armed with a bunch of long spines a little way from 

 the base, and between the others there are numerous more slender, 

 shorter ones, which are continued upon the tarsi. The apical tarsal joint 

 is also finished by a pair of long curved nails. The other femora and 

 shanks are likewise banded with pale brown, and have a pair of long 

 piceous curved nails." 



G. variec/atus Guer. 1844. 



Guerin. Icon. Ins. p. 352. 



This well-named species has a more definite or distinct pattern than 

 the others. Champion says it is the most beautiful of the genus. "The 

 pronotum is subparallel at the sides in front, the lateral angles are 

 foliaceous, very distinctly crenate in front and behind, and transverse 

 or subtransverse along their anterior edge." 



Taken in Texas, California, New Mexico. 



G. vicimis Champ. 1901. 



Champion, Biol. Centr. Am. Heter. II, p. 349. 



It would appear that Montandon had named this in his notes and sent 

 some of the bugs to Champion for examination. Champion says: "It is 

 very like G. vaHegatv^ but has the foliaceous lateral angles of the pro- 

 notum, more oblique in front (instead of subtransverse), and less coarsely 

 crenate. The pronotum is strongly constricted at the sides behind the 

 anterior angles, the margins being subparallel in front. The general 

 coloration is usually more obscure than in G. variegatus." 



Neotropical in distribution. 



