436 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



the reach of the tide, although they were at a former period ; but still 

 these insects remain there, although apparently in diminished numbers. 

 The salt mud seems to afford them the conditions best suited to their 

 development, and on such spots they may be found in all stages of de- 

 velopment and in unnumbered multitudes. As far as I was able to 

 collect them (which was difficult because of their activity and close re- 

 semblance to the soil), I found the males to be in the proportion of two 

 to fifteen females. Yet I do not think that this would be the full pro- 

 portion if we were able to collect them exhaustively over a locality in 

 which they occurred of average abundance. 



Specimens were collected by me at JSTewtonville, Chelsea, Lynn, and 

 Braintree, Mass., in July; also on Sinepuxent Beach, Maryland, in July 

 and August. 



Specimens have been found also in Cuba, by Prof. Felipe Poey, which 

 were smaller than the average of those from the United States. 



An individual from San Diego, Cal., has the scutellum black, except- 

 ing only some small marks of yellow on the sides, and the punctures of 

 the scutellum are coarser than those of the pronotura. Its length is 

 only 4J millimeters, and the width of the pronotum is If millimeters. 



6. S. hirta. 



AcantMa hirta Say, Heteropt. New Harmony, 34, No. 2. 



" Brownish, darker before. Body densely hairy, dull yellowish-brown 

 or fuliginous; head a little darker at base; thorax blackish before the 

 transverse line. Scutel blackish. Hemely tra conspicuously hairy, with 

 dull yellowish spots, as well on the membrane as on tbe corium. Pec- 

 tus a little varied with; the remaining inferior surface, including the 

 feet, immaculate. 



" Length to tip of hemely tra under one-fourth of an inch." 



" This species may be recognized by its more obviously hairy vesture ; 

 its color is also paler than usual in this genus. Inhabits Indiana." 



I have tried to reconcile some of the varieties of the two preceding 

 species with this description, but all of them fail to fit it. Accordingly, 

 it has here been placed separately until actual acquaintance shall settle 

 its identity. 



B. Membrane icitJifoiir areoles : 



a. Membrane almost eon/used icith the corium; pronotum in front almost 

 conical^ the anterior lobe longer than the posterior one : 



7. 8. coriacea. 



Salda coriacea Uhler, Fifth Ann. Rep. U. S. Geog. Surv. for 1871, 1872, p. 421, 



No. 2. 



Form similar to that of S. Uttoralis Linn,, but much narrower, very 



elongate-ovate, black, highly polished, minutely shagreened. Head 



oblique anteriorly, distinctly shagreened, sericeous pubescent, the base 



moderately wide, slightly convex, forming a distinct neck; ocelli honey 



