246 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. II, No. 6, 
ATHYSANUS COMMA VAN DUZEE. (Plate 17, Fig. 1.) 
Athysanus comma Van D. Can. Ent.. XXIV, p, 114, 1S92. 
Athysanus comma Osborn and Ball. Ia. Acad. Sc . IV. p. 223. 1897. 
Form broad and stout ; vertex flat, roundingly right-angled, the anterior 
margin thick. Elytra long and parallel-margined or short and flaring. 
Color creamy white, four spots on the anterior margin of vertex, two at the 
base and four stripes on pronotum, black. Elytra with a fulvous brown 
band inside the broad, light margins on each side. Length, 9 5 mm, $ 4 
mm.; width, 2 mm. 
Vertex flat, anterior angle a trifle obtuse, anterior margin thick, nearly 
twice wider than long, three-fourths the length of the pronotum ; profile 
acutely angled ; front and clypeus almost straight ; front moderately broad 
above, distant from eyes, scarcely convex, lateral margins almost straight to 
clypeus. Elytra longer than abdomen, parallel-margined, venation usually 
obscure except near apex, the inner fork of first sector not forking again or 
only to form a minute cell, apical cells large. 
Color : pale creamy, four quadrate spots shared equally by face and ver- 
tex, a pair of round ones on base of vertex and four parallel stripes on pro- 
notum and scutellum, black. Elytra pale with the claval suture, a band just 
before the apex and a line on the inner branch of first sector, black ; a 
broad, fulvous, brown band extends around within the margins, broadest 
behind, its inner limb is divided anteriorly to connect with the stripes on 
pronotum. Face and below pale, a pair of quadrate spots below the antennae, 
another pair below the lateral margins of pronotum and a stripe on outer 
half of the connexivum, black. Legs pale, narrow, dark stripes on anterior 
sides of all the femora and a pair of broader ones on the inner margin of the 
posterior tibiae. 
Brachypterous form, elytra shorter than abdomen, obliquely truncate, 
flaring behind, the apical cells reduced to mere rudiments almost in line 
with the apex of clavus. Color pattern the same except that the transverse 
bands at the apex are narrower. The last two abdominal segments have 
four longitudinal, black stripes, and the pygofers have on each side a 
round, black spot which is connected anteriorly with a stripe forming a 
comma. The males have another pair of black spots on the lower corners of 
the pygofers. 
Genitalia : female segment a little longer than penultimate ; the posterior 
margin roundingly emarginate, with a narrow’, black-margined, median slit, 
the lateral angles inclined to be produced ; a rounding or bilobed membrane 
at the apex of emargination. Pygofers short and stout ; male valve large, 
triangular, apex rounding, sides indented, plates slightly wider than valve at 
base, narrowing to the middle, then parallel-margined to the nearly truncate 
apices, twice the length of the valve, equaling the pygofers. 
Habitat: It has been found in Iowa, Neb, Kans. and in 
Colorado as far west as the mountains, and also in the mountains 
of New Hampshire. 
