BUGS. 247 



trees and bushes of various kinds in the middle, southern, and southwestern States. 

 In Montana, Dakota, Illinois, and Minnesota it is sometimes quite common upon plants 

 growing in plains or prairies. 



Acocephalus belongs here, and may be recognized by its boat-shaped figure^ gray 

 and brown mixed colors on a pale yellow ground, as well as by the coarse surface, 

 thick wing-covers with stout veins, and the shovel-shaped vertex, with a thick, smooth 

 margin. A. nervosus is a pale clay-yellow species, grayish, freckled with brown, and 

 having a few angular, whitish lines on the wing covers. The male is more unifonnly 

 brownish-yellow, with a pale band across the prothorax. It measures about one fourth 

 of an inch in length, and inhabits both Europe and North America. Specimens may 

 be swept from thistles, golden-rod, and various kinds of weeds in fields throughout the 

 northern States. Thus far only three or four species of this genus have been found 

 in the United States, but in Europe more than a dozen species have already been 

 discovered. 



A very large assemblage of forms belongs to the genus Gypoiia. It appears to 

 have no representatives on the eastern continent, but*already more than one hundred 

 species have been described from the different i)arts of North and South America. 

 The best known type of this genus is the pea-green G. octolineata. It is marked on 

 the head by eight yellow lines, which continue back uj)on the prothorax. Its head is 

 broad, shovel-shaped, a little peaked at the very tip. When long dead, or weather- 

 beaten, the color changes to a greenish yellow, and the stripes become pale or soiled 

 yellow. It measures nearly half an inch to the tip of the closed wing-covers. This 

 species lives upon low plants, solidago, blackberry, willow, and small bushes in low 

 grounds. It is also widely distributed, being found from Canada to Florida, and west 

 to Minnesota, Kansas, and Texas. A variety is sometimes met with that is tinted 

 bright scarlet, especially upon the veins of the wing-covers, and between the stripes of 

 the head and prothorax. 



Closely related to this genus is the beautiful and odd Hecalus. In it the head is 

 protracted forwards in a long, shovel-shaped, thin plate, with the ocelli placed on the 

 back part of the vertex. The wing-covers are nearly parallel-sided, with straight veins 

 and two series of apical areoles, those of the marginal series being very short. There 

 are also two veins upon the clavus. 



A very beautiful example of this genus is the S. lineatus. It is pale green, with 

 four orange lines on the vertex, which are continued back upon the prothorax and scu- 

 tellum. The wing-covers are opaque, with orange veins, and the costal margin is 

 recurved, and either white or pale yellow. It measures somewhat more than one third 

 of an inch in length, and was captured upon grasses in the cranberry swamps of New 

 Jersey, early in the month of August. A single specimen was taken by myself when 

 sweeping marsh reeds on the island of Nantucket. 



Spangbergia viilnerata is another fine insect, which generically approaches very 

 near to the j)receding. It differs, however, in having only one vein upon the clavus, 

 and only three areoles to the disc of the wing-covers. It is of a delicate yellow, with 

 two short, oblique, crimson lines on the long, foliceous head, and three lines of the 

 same color on the prothorax. The wing-covers are greenish or yellowish white, with 

 the veins rose-colored or orange. It is a little smaller than the preceding, and is dis- 

 tributed from Texas to Bahia, Brazil. 



Other related forms are uniform grass green, with shorter, less foliaceous head, as 

 in Parabolocratus viridis ; or with extremely long, foliaceous head, and dull clay-yel- 



