Proceedings of 
the United States 
National Museum 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION +- WASHINGTON, D.C. 
Volume 113 1962 Number 3460 
WATER-STRIDERS OF THE SUBGENUS STRIDULIVELIA 
FROM MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE WEST INDIES 
(HEMIPTERA: VELIIDAE) 
By Cart J. Drake! anp ARNOLD S. MENKE? 
The subgenus Stridulivelia Hungerford (1929) was created to hold 
six new species of water-striders, genus Velia Latreille, five from South 
America and one from Panama. Although the latter species, Velia 
cinctipes Champion, lacks the mechanism for stridulation, it is un- 
questionably congeneric with those members of the subgenus possess- 
ing sonorific instruments. In the original subgeneric description, 
Hungerford designated his new Velia raspa as the type species. 
The present paper reviews the four species of Stridulivelia from the 
West Indies, Central America, and Mexico. Only one of these four 
species, Velia tersa Drake and Harris from Trinidad, is equipped with 
sound-producing organs. The subgenus is not known to occur north 
of Mexico. 
The holotype and allotype of the new species described below were 
selected from a long series of Mexican specimens kindly lent us by 
the Los Angeles County Museum. Paratypes from this same series 
1 Research Associate, Smithsonian Institution. 
2 University of California, Davis, Calif. 
413 
621495—62 1 
