284 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



and sometimes expanded. Dysodius contains tlie largest sj)ecies known. D. lunatus 

 lives in the forests of South America" and is distributed north as far as central Mex- 

 ico. It is of a rusty brown color, has the shoulders drawn out 

 into flat, curved processes, and the sides of the abdomen are scal- 

 loped. Its full length is about three-fourths of an inch, and the 

 breadth of the abdomen is nearly half an inch. Perhaps the most 

 singular form of this group yet discovered is the JEuloba pallida. 

 It has the sides of the pronotum expanded into flat, thin, angular 

 wings, and the sides of the abdomen are split into series of flat, 

 thin, ovoid, acute lobes, with a rib-like, ehitinous stiffener to each, 

 which recalls the ajjpearance of the external tracheae of certain 

 Fig. 326.— Dysodius Odonata. It is a native of Para, and seems to be of unusual rarity 

 in collections. Other genera, such as Aneurtts and Mezira, in- 

 habit the United States and Eurojje, but the greater number of these may be regarded 

 as sub-tropical, or even tropical, in both hemispheres. 



The singular family Phymatid^ may be placed next to these, although it has vari- 

 ous elements of structure which point to groups which we have long since passed 

 over. Thus, the fore tibiae resemble those of the Naucoridee, the head conforms to 

 the type of Aradus, the keels on the prothorax are those of the Holoptilina, and the 

 principal make-up of the insect, with its short, stout, curved rostrum, places it in very 

 close affinity to the raptorial Reduvidse. Our common North American Phymata 

 erosa is a yellow insect, greenish when fresh, marked by a broad black band across the 

 angular and expanded part of the abdomen, and with some black spots on the head, 

 thorax, and scutellum. The fore-femora are very broad, curved, and granulated, with 

 an oblique tooth opposed to the tip of the tibias, and a smaller tooth on the stout, long 

 coxae. The female is larger than the male, and commonly measures about four-tenths 

 of an inch in length. In this species the head is rather broadly notched at tip, and 

 the ends each side are a little turned up, long, triangular, but not acute. It lives in 

 numbers upon the flowers of golden-rod and various other plants in meadows and gar- 

 dens, and, concealing itself, awaits the approach of a bee or other insect, when it sud- 

 denly makes a stroke with the fore tibiae, draws the insect to its beak, and there leisurely 

 proceeds to suck the juices. Numerous species of this genus inhabit our southern 

 states, and still others Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and tropical South 

 America, but those of the old continent are very few in number, and much less remark- 

 able in appearance. 



Another genus, ITacrocephalus, is shared by North and South America, but the 

 species are generally different in each country ; and the West Indies have still other 

 foiins, which are even more beautiful and curious. 



Next to these is placed a family of exceedingly feeble and generally small insects 

 that attract the attention by reason of the vast numbers which collect upon the leaves 

 of various trees and shrubs. They are the Tingitid^, which may generally be recog- 

 nized by the gauze-like meshes of the wing-covers, which lack the membrane, and gen- 

 erally have these organs, together with the sides of the prothorax, very thin, almost 

 transparent, and widely expanded beyond the body. Over the head a hoodlike pro- 

 cess, also full of meshes, often projects forward, or in some forms more simple pro- 

 cesses are present and modified in a variety of ways. 



Corythuca arcuata is a common example of this group, which lives, sometimes in 

 great numbers, upon the leaves of several kinds of oak trees. It occupies the under- 



