\'ol. XXviii I ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 455 



New Species of Lopidea (Miridae, Hemip.)* 



By Harry H. Knight, Ithaca, New York. 



The writer here takes occasion to name and distinguish 

 certain species of Lopidea, which are found in the eastern 

 United States. In his studies on the structure of the male 

 genitaUa the writer has found characters which will give some 

 structural basis for distinguishing the genus Lopidea. The 

 broad and more or less flattened left genital clasper with bifur- 

 cated tip (figs. 1-3, 5), appears to be characteristic of all the 

 species including media Say, the type of the genus. On the 

 other hand, the structure of the right clasper gives a wide 

 range of variation and thus good specific characters are ob- 

 tained. 



The genus Lomatopleura Renter has supposedly been sep- 

 arated on the basis of the incrassate form of the second an- 

 tennal segment. On that basis the writer has found it difficult 

 to place one or two species in either Lopidea or Lotnat a pleura' 

 where the antennae are only slightly incrassate. The antennal 

 character is further rendered more doubtful by the fact that 

 each species in both genera has antennae of slightly dififerent 

 thickness. The thickness of the antennae has been found use- 

 ful to separate the females of species which are otherwise 

 very similar in coloration and structure. Thus far the writer 

 has noted no difference in the thickness of the antennae be- 

 tween the sexes of a given species. 



The species caesar, type of the genus Lomatopleura Renter, 

 has the same type of left genital clasper (figs. 1-3. 5) as that 

 found in Lopidea media and other species of the genus as 

 rohiniae, confliiens and cuneata. If instahilis were only the 

 type of the genus Lomatopleura it might well stand on the 

 basis of genital characters but unfortunately this is not the 

 case. At present the writer prefers to consider all the species 

 that have been placed under both genera as belonging to the 

 genus Lopidea Uhler (1872). 



♦Contribution from the Department of Entomology of Cornell Uni- 

 versity. 



