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



reddish brown and fuscous ; pronotum with yellowish and blackish 

 rays; scutellum margined with blackish, leaving a Y- or heart- 

 shaped area yellowish; hemelytra reddish brown or blackish, 

 streaked with yellowish or gray. 



This is the commonest species of the family Miridae in the 

 eastern United States and is found everywhere frequenting many 

 kinds of plants. It is a pest on nursery stock, ornamental plants, 

 and cultivated crops. 



Common throughout the state. 

 L. pratensis var. strigulatus (Walker). 



Walker, Cat. Heteroptera, vi, 94, 1873. 



A very dark form of pratensis, having all pale markings much 

 reduced ; head blackish but with four longitudinal yellowish marks 

 on front. 



New Haven, 9 Nov., 1919 (H. C. Fortner). 

 L. pratensis var. rubrosignatus Knight, new variety. 



Apparently not differing appreciably from the typical pratensis, 

 but somewhat smaller and having a different color aspect. 



Male: Length 5.4 mm., width 2.47 mm. Head : Pale to yellow- 

 ish, more or less tinged with reddish, tips of juga and sometimes 

 spot above base of antenna, blackish. Antennae nearly black, 

 segment ii somewhat brownish at middle. 



Pronotum : Pale to yellowish, calli except inner half, extending 

 rather broadly to anterior angles of disk, and two short rays behind 

 each callus, black; basal angles infuscated, a black ray just above 

 coxal cleft. Scutellum yellow, black at middle of base, the dark 

 color sometimes extending to middle of disk; mesoscutum black 

 but narrowly exposed. 



Hemelytra: Pale translucent, tip of clavus and more or less 

 broadly on apical area of corium, bright red; clavus becoming 

 brownish black bordering scutellum ; cuneus pale translucent, apex 

 scarcely infuscated, inner margin slenderly red. Membrane pale 

 fuscous, slightly paler on middle and bordering tip of cuneus; 

 veins red or becoming reddish. 



Legs : Pale to yellowish, femora with two blackish, subapical 

 bands. 



Venter: Yellowish, genital segment becoming infuscated on 

 lower side at base. 



Female: Length 4.9 mm., width 2.48 mm.; very similar to the 

 male but more broadly pale ; antennal segment ii black but show- 

 ing brown at middle ; each callus with spot on outer basal angle 

 and another just behind middle on disk, black; tip of clavus and a 

 small spot at apex of corium bright red. 



Holotype: Male, 15 July-6 Aug., 1917, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 

 (Chris E. Olsen) ; author's collection. Allotype: same data as type. 

 Paratypes: Male, topotypic Male, 9 Aug., 191 1, Nantucket, Mass. (C. W. 

 Johnson). 



