

SCUTELLEROIDEA OF IOWA 11 
Osborn, ‘‘Notes on Hemiptera of Northwestern Iowa.’’ Four 
additional species are listed at this time so that the total number 
of recorded species to this date was fifty-one. Brief notes on the 
abundance, occurrence, ete., of the four newly recorded species 
are given along with some similar data on other species of Hem- 
iptera. 
Summing up, then, all the species of Scutelleroidea recorded 
by Osborn we find a total of fifty-one. His first list, which was 
also the first list for the state, gave a total of thirty-three species 
so that during the decade from 1888, the year of the appearance 
of the first list, to 1898, the year in which the last additions were 
made to this list, an increase of eighteen species is noted. 
Another paper entitled, ‘‘A Generic Synopsis of the Nearctic 
Pentatomidae,’’ although not dealing particularly with the Iowa 
fauna, was published by Professor H. E. Summers in the Pro- 
ceedings of the lowa Academy of Science, Volume VI, 1899, 
pages 40-46. This work is largely a translation and rearrange- 
ment of the Nearctic genera and subfamilies as found in Stal’s 
‘‘Enumeratio Hemipterorum’’ and affords a convenient table for 
determining the Iowa genera. 
Most persons are familiar with the members of this group as 
a whole from the fact that when one of the bugs is disturbed 
an exceedingly ill-smelling odor is given off and this coupled with 
the propensity of several species for crawling on berry vines of 
different sorts is accountable for the appellation they have re- 
eeived of ‘‘stink bugs’”’ or ‘‘berry bugs.’’ The odor emanates 
from an internal secretion which may be liberated at the will of 
the insect and which is possessed in varying degrees by other 
Heteroptera as well. In the nymph the odoriferous orifices 
are found on the dorsal side of the abdomen which is largely 
exposed since the wings and scutellum are comparatively little 
developed, thus permitting the glands to exercise their protective 
function to the best advantage. In the adult, however, the 
fluid issues from a small opening in the episternum at either side 
of the mid-coxae. The shape and disposition of this orifice, the 
ostiolar opening, is of some taxonomic importance. 
Many of the species of Scuteileroidea are of considerable 
economic importance from the standpoint of agriculture. Some 
