48 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



Described from Louisiana but common in Massachusetts and 

 undoubtedly occurs in Connecticut. Apparently a sea-coast species 

 and probably lives on some shore grass. 



Megamelus Fieber. 



In this genus the vertex is produced before the eyes but less so 

 than in Stenocranus, the carinae are sharp and prominent over the 

 apex of the head and the front is broader below with the sides 

 sometimes a little arcuated. Crawford's use of this generic name 

 in 19 14 is unwarranted and unscientific. 



Key to Species. 



1. Flavo-testaceous varied with fuscous or brown; face with a 



transverse brown band covering the clypeus notulus 



Fuscous .or blackish, varied with pale 2 



2. Tibial spur normal; color almost uniformly piceous-brown piceus 



Tibial spur very large, ovate, flat, wider than the front and nearly 



as long ; frontal carinae pale davisi 



M. notulus (Germar). 



Thon's Ent. Archiv., ii, 57, 1830. 



I have taken this species on marshy fields in New York, New 

 Hampshire and Ontario and it must occur in Connecticut. The 

 young- have the median frontal carina forked almost to its base and 

 the head and pronotum ornamented with "crater-pits." 

 M. piceus Van Duzee. 



Mich. Agr. Expt. Sta., Bull. 102, 8, 1894, 



A small piceous species marked with pale on the vertex, venter 

 and about the coxae. It has been taken from Long Island to 

 Michigan and may occur in Connecticut. 

 M. davisi V^an Duzee. 



Bull. Buff. Soc. Nat. Sci., v, 235, 1897. 



A little larger than piceus with pale facial carinae and a dark 

 mark at apex of the clavus. It has the front broader and more 

 ovate below and is remarkable in its greatly enlarged and flattened 

 tibial spurs. Its home is on water plants and its large spurs 

 undoubtedly support it when by a mischance it lands on the water. 

 Those who consider the form of the spur a character of primary 

 importance would undoubtedly found a new genus for this species 

 but I can see no occasion for so doing. The enlarged spur occurs 

 independently in Stenocranus and might be found in any of the 

 related genera having species that live about the water. 



Pissonotus Van Duzee. 



The members of this genus are easily recognized by the trans- 

 verse black band that crosses the base of the clypeus ; usually the 

 apex of the front is paler bringing the dark band into still stronger 



