Feb., 1920 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 19 



AN UNDESCRIBED WATER-STRIDER FROM THE 

 ADIRONDACKS.* 



By Carl J. Drake, Syracuse, N. Y. 



During the summers of 1917, 1918 and 1919, the writer col- 

 lected numerous specimens of a small undescribed water-strider 

 belonging to the genus Microvelia Westwood upon Bean Pond, a 

 small bog-pond on the forest tract of the New York State Ranger 

 School near Wanaken, New York. The species dwells in small, 

 secluded coves very near the shore usually under the shelter of 

 overhanging vegetation or among aquatic plants. In a few in- 

 stances some specimens were captured on the moist ground quite 

 near the water's edge. The insect breeds continually during the 

 summer, but only large nymphs and adults were taken in late fall. 



In Bueno's key to " The Veliid^e of the Atlantic States "^ 

 the species runs to Microvelia horealis Bueno, from which it may 

 be readily separated by the nearly straight posterior tibiae in the 

 male and the nearly straight posterior margin of first male genital 

 segment ; most of the cells of the hemelytra are white or mostly 

 white in both sexes. In the apterous form only two segments 

 are visible from above, the prothorax being very broad. During 

 August, 1 91 7, I collected an apterous male and female on a 

 small pond in Elka Park, Catskill Mountains, New York, in 

 company with several specimens of M. horealis Bueno and a few 

 specimens of M. americana Uhler. On a stagnant pond in Syra- 

 cuse I collected a macropterous male and female during Septem- 

 ber, 1 91 8. At the same time I took several examples of M. 

 horealis Bueno, M. americana, and one winged form of Merra- 

 gata foveata Drake, also specimens of Gerris huenoi Kirkaldy, 

 G. rufoscutellafus Latr., Trepohates pictus H. S. and Rhetim^to- 

 hates rileyi Bergroth. I have named the insect in honor of Mr. 

 J. R. de la Torre Bueno, who has taken an especially active 

 interest in the aquatic Hemiptera. 



* Contribution from Department of Entomology, New York State Col- 

 lege of Forestry, Syracuse, N. Y. 

 1 Bull. Brook. Ent. Soc, Vol. XI, No. 3, p. 57. 



