286 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



Immediately next to the Cimicidae are placed the Phttocoeid^, recorded in many 

 of the handbooks as Capsini or Capsina. These Heteroptera are usually of medium or 

 small size, but include so many differences of shape throughout the various genera 

 that it is impossible to draw them all into one common formula. The section to which 

 Miris belongs is composed of elongated forms, with very long antennae, having the 

 basal joint thick, long, and often very bristly, while the head has an incised line along 

 the middle. Nearly the whole family has the fully-winged forms furnished with a looped 

 nervure at the base, which is generally bounded on the inner corner by a narrow and 

 long areole. These insects are either destitute of the usual pair of ocelli, or these organs 

 are so minute as not to be detected without special preparation for the microscope. 



More than a dozen divisions have been founded in this great family, of which the 

 principal belonging to North' America are Miraria, Miridiaria, Clivinemaria, Loparia, 

 Phytocoraria, Capsaria, Bryocoraria, Cjllecoraria, and Plagiognatharia. 



In such a group as this, the eye is bewildered by the excessive variety and number 

 of patterns of ornamentation which are present on every hand ; while the mind is 

 delighted with their graceful proportions and light elegance of form, as well as by the 

 natural ease of their quick motions. Many of these insects are soft and tender, with 

 legs and antennae easily detached, while others are tougher, more compact, and have a 

 crustaceous outer integument. The antennie are either thread-shaped, taper very slen- 

 der to the tip, or have the last joint a little thickened ; these organs are generally long 

 and four-jointed in all the species. In the genus Eucerocoris they are nearly twice as 

 long as the body, and the insect resembles a slender Ali/dus, or still more some of the 

 blunt-headed Berytina. The black species of Monalonion very closely mimic some of 

 the small Ichneumonidae. 



In America the most superbly colored and largest species belong to the Loparia. 

 The Brazilian Mesthenia pyrrhula belongs here ; it is opaque black, with the thorax, 

 breast, scuteUum, and base of the wing-covers either red or orange, and measures seven- 

 twelfths of an inch to tip of the wing-covers. A still larger species, which inhab- 

 its the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro, measures three-quarters of an inch in length, and is 

 also opaque black, with the head, thorax, breast, base and tip of wing-novers, and base 

 and side margins of venter blood-red ; the red of the prothorax is interrupted by three 

 short, black stripes, and the tylus is also black. It may be called Resthenia cardinalis. 

 The southern United States are well supplied with representatives of this genus, of 

 which perhaps the most conspicuous example is the It. insitiva. It is black, with an 

 orange prothorax and scutellura ; rarely the orange is replaced by red, or the head is 

 also yellow. Once in a while the scuteUum is black. It measures about four-tenths 

 of an inch in length to tip of the wing-covers. Specimens may sometimes be found set- 

 tled upon low plants in the alleys of oak woods, where the soil is damp and rich; The 

 young occur upon wild blackberry and other bushes in similar situations during the 

 early summer, while the fully adult appears in July. 



The Capsaria are also broadly ovate forms, but in the United States 



not generally so richly colored as the Resthenias, yet one or two species 



are very pretty and well worthy of our attention. One of these is the 



Poecilacapsus vittatus, a bright yellow insect, with a shining orange 



viG.sw.—Pacii- head, forepart of the prothorax, and entire underside of the body; while 



acapsusvi a us. ^jjg ^ntennffi, two short, broad stripes on the back lobe, and a short, 



narrow stripe next the outer margin of the prothorax, two broad stripes running from 



the base each side of the scuteUum to the inner angle of the corium, a narrower stripe 



