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



Plea Leach. 



Key to Species. 



i. Elytral sutures faint or absent; color markings inconspicuous; 

 head with a light median streak; elytra strongly arched poste- 

 riorly striola 



Elytral sutures strongly marked; color markings conspicuous; 

 head with a large triangular dark spot between the eyes ; elytra 

 moderately arched posteriorly harnedi 



P. striola Fieber. 



Abh. Bohm. Ges. Wiss. (5) iii, 296, pi. 2, figs. 1-3, 1845. 



This species is carnivorous, feeding mainly on Entomostraca. 

 The eggs are inserted into the soft tissue of the vascular water 

 plants. 



Milford, 26 Aug., 1905 (H. L. V.). 

 P. harnedi Drake. 



Ohio Jour. Sci., xxii, 114, 1922. 



Described from Mississippi. 



Family SALDIDAE. 

 (Acanthiidae.) 



By J. R. DE LA TORRE-BUENO. 



The family Saldidae, also known as Acanthiidae, according to 

 one's nomenclatorial views, is the link joining the land bugs to 

 the subaquatic Cryptocerate Hemiptera. It introduces the series 

 and leads through the Ochteridae to the Naucoridae, Belostoma- 

 tidae and finally Corixidae and Notonectidae. 



The species of this family in this country ordinarily frequent 

 damp and marshy spots or the shores of waters where there is 

 abundant moisture, some living on the sea beaches and tidal flats. 

 In Europe, one species lives on dry heaths ; and an arboreal form 

 is found in Hawaii. They are exceedingly agile and it is quite an 

 art to catch them. Where they are thick, it is possible to get them 

 into a sweeping or butterfly net brushed close to the ground. 



So far as known, all Saldids are predaceous. As to a complete 

 life history, this is as yet unknown, although Prof. H. B. Hunger- 

 ford has observed the mating, oviposition and one or two nymphal 

 stages of Lampracanthia anthracina and L. crassicornis. Further 

 than this, nothing seems to be known about any species. 



The latest, and in fact, the only complete taxonomic study of the 

 family is by Dr. O. M. Reuter, who in 1912, split up the old and 

 comprehensive genus Salda (or Acanthia) into a number of 

 genera, separable by the following table. All the genera are 

 included in it, since so little is known about the family in this 

 country that it would not be surprising to find heretofore unre- 

 corded foreign genera here, just as there are four Palaearctic 

 species of Saldula found with us. 



