104 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
the area was inclined to be a little moist due to insufficient 
drainage. Occasionally also, specimens are taken from weeds 
and grasses of various kinds. Forbes reports 7. custator as 
feeding upon corn and wheat and Chittenden records it as in- 
juring asparagus in South Carolina. 
Genus MURGANTIA Stal 
1862. Mureantia Stal, Stett. Ent. Zeit., X XIII, 105. 
This small American genus containing about a half-dozen 
Species is ordinarily confined to tropical and subtropical regions: 
and but one form encroaches upon the Nearctic fauna. Diag- 
nostic characters of the genus include the following: 
Head strongly bent downward, only slightly convex on dorsal surface; 
median lobe longer than lateral lobes which have their margins reflexed and 
much swollen; sides of head weakly sinuate in front of eyes. Pronotum 
short, the anterior third suddenly bent downward, the lateral 
margins smooth. Ostiolar openings just anterior to lateral border 
of postcoxae, scarcely elevated and without a _ sulcus. Scutellum. 
not reaching posteriorly as far as corium, the latter with a distinct outer 
apical angle. Tibiae strongly suleate. Abdomen unarmed at base. 
Murgantia histrionica (Hahn) 
1834. Strachia histrionica Hahn, Wanz. Ins., II, 116, fig. 196. 
1851. Strachia histrionica Dallas, List Hem., I, 263. 
1853. Eurydema histrionica Herrich-Schaeffer, Wanz. Ins., Verz., 93. 
1868. Strachia histrionica Glover, Rept. Ent. U. S. Dept. Agr. for 1867, 71. 
1872. Murgantia histrionica Stal, Svensk. Vet. Handl., 10, no. 4, 37. 
1876. Murgantia histrionica Uhler, Bull. U. S. Geol. Geogr. Surv., II, 290, Pl. 
OM tioan Oy 
1877. Murgantia histrionica Uhler, Bull. U. S. Geol. Geogr. Surv., III, 404. 
1880. Murgantia histrionica Distant, B. C. A., Rhynch. Het., I, 71, Pl. 7, fig. 21. 
1882. Murgantia histrionica Lintner, Rept. Ins. N. Y., I, 264, fig. 77. 
1894. Murgantia histrionica Osborn, Proc. Ia. Acad. Sci., I, Pt. IV, 121. 
1904, Murgantia histrionica Van Duzee, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc., XXX, 57. 
1908. Murgantia histrionica Chittenden, Cire. 103, Bur. Ent. U. S. Dept. Agr., 
II, 85. 
1913. Murgantia histrionica Stoner, Ent. News, XXIV, 132. 
General form obovate, conspicuously marked in shining blue black, 
orange and whitish; sparsely, shallowly punctate. Head shining black, 
strongly deflexed, impunctate but with a few more or less distinct trans- 
verse rugae; tylus longer than the juga, the margins of the latter becom- 
ing more thickened and reflexed towards apex; a short, broad, yellowish 
white mark on either side of median line, a mark of the same color just 
before the eye and one on its posterior border. Antennae and rostrum 
black. Pronotum shining orange, very sparsely and irregularly punctate; 
a complete or more or less incomplete ring of black centered with orange 
