BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BROOKLYN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Vol. XII October, 1917 No. 4 



THE FAMILY ISOMETOPID^ FIEB. AS REPRESENTED 

 IN NORTH AMERICA. (HETEROPTERA.) 



By Edmund H. Gibson, U. S. Bureau of Entomology, 

 Washington, D. C. 



A keen interest was taken in the family Isometopidse by the 

 late Mr. Otto Heidemann which resulted in a short but very 

 admirable treatise which he published in 1907. Since that date 

 there has been no further contribution to our knowledge of this 

 little but interesting and rather unique group. 



With the addition of one new genus and three new species 

 herein described the family is represented in North America by 

 three genera and seven species. Members of the family are also 

 known to occur in Central Europe and in the East Indies. These 

 little insects are not at all common and are considered prizes to 

 the collector. Their seeming rarity may be due to their minute 

 size and to the habit, of at least a few species, of feeding on the 

 bark of trees. 



The family was first described by Fieber in i860 and at times 

 has been considered a subfamily of Miridse but to the writer and 

 several others this seems unwarranted. 



The family Isometopidae may be characterized as follows : head 

 short, vertical, and more or less depressed beneath resembling the 

 head of a Homopteron; antennae four jointed with the second 

 joint longer than the other three taken together ; rostrum four 

 jointed ; eyes large ; ocelli near the base of the head and con- 

 siderably raised; thorax much wider than head and prominent; 

 scutellum prominent being considerably raised above the elytra; 

 Membrane with two cells. 



