246 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Vol. xvi. 



Bolletin Museu Goeldi, Vol. V, No. I. 



Wiener Entom. Zeitung, Vol. XXVII, Nos. 4 and 5. 



Deutsche Entom. Zeitschrift, 1903, No. 2. 



Mr. Dow, of the outing committee, reported that eleven members were present 

 at the field trip to Garrett Rock, Paterson, N. J., and announced that the next ex- 

 pedition would be to Rockaway Beach on Sunday, May 10. 



The death of Professor Willis G. Johnson, recently a member of the Society, was 

 reported and the President requested Mr. Osborn to prepare a suitable notice for 

 publication in the next Journal. 



Dr. Zabriskie spoke on the " Microscopical Examination of External Structures 

 of Certain Heteropterous Insects of the Genera Chariesterus, Leptocorisa, Zicca and 

 A cant hoc ems.''' 1 Numerous lantern slides illustrated Dr. Zabriskie's talk. The 

 remarks were chiefly explanations of the lantern slides, projections of etched tracings 

 of camera lucida drawings from microscopial mounts of dissections. The dissections 

 were from external structures of both sexes of a species belonging to each of the four 

 genera mentioned in the title, i. e., Chariesterus gracilicomis, Leptocorisa Jiliformis, 

 Zicca taniola and Acanthocerns lobatus, all members of the family Coreidae as tabu- 

 lated in Uhler's check-list, and nearly all collected in Cuba. The specimens were 

 selected from a fine lot of Heteroptera donated to Mr. Zabriskie by Professor C. T. 

 Baker, lately of the Agricultural Exp. Station of Cuba, and of the Museum at Para, 

 Brazil. 



The illustrations showed something of the remarkable uniformity of external 

 structures in the family Coreidae, so far as these have been examined. The antennae 

 of the successive species differ in length and contour, but all have the small, cuplike 

 supplementary segment between the third and fourth segments ; the labium varies in 

 length as compared with the segments of the beak, the barbs of the two outer lancets 

 vary in coarseness and number, but otherwise have the same general form. All species 

 have the pair of peculiar stout spines, situated near the margin of the cleft and near 

 the base of the second segment of the beak. They all have the general form of ' ' comb ' ' 

 at the apex of the tibia, on the inner side of the anterior legs, apparently differing 

 only in the number and coarseness of the spines. All have the general form of curious 

 " wing lock" on the under surface of the hemielytron, or anterior wing, consisting 

 of a thickening of the distal, acute angle of the clavus, in which thickening lies a 

 deep pit, furnished on the anterior side with one or more rows of stout, curved spines, 

 and on the posterior side with a small prominence furnished with several rows of fish- 

 scale-like spines and the same general form of "wing-clasp." The opposing up- 

 turned costal edge of the posterior wing, on expansion of the wings, glides into the 

 pit, under the points of the stout spines in the anterior wing, and evidently forms a 

 firm union in flight. 



In the last species mentioned, Acanthocerits lobatus, there is a remarkable ex- 

 hibition of secondary sexual characters. The posterior legs of the male are greatly 

 enlarged and furnished with a formidable armature of stout spines. The female has 

 the supero-posterior angles of the metathorax slightly protuberant, with a faint orange 

 color. The male has the same angle of the metathorax furnished with a prominent 

 lobe, rising from a stout base, quickly thinning out into a spatula-shaped process ex- 

 tending longitudinally at an angle of 45 degrees with the longitudinal axis of the in- 

 sect, varying in length in different specimens, in some cases equalling one half of the 

 diameter of the thorax, and of a striking orange color. 



