116 
Psyche 
[December 
ing, these specimens in color approaching very closely to 
Ballou’s species. D. discolor Walk, and D. howardn Ballou 
are thus evidently very closely related species, derived from 
a common South American continental stock and exhibit- 
ing progressive differentiation as they are followed up the 
line of the Lesser Antilles. 
In Trinidad this species has been found feeding and 
breeding on the seeds and unopened bolls of all varieties 
of cultivated cotton, on the local “wild” cottons ( Gossypium 
purpuras cens and G. peruvianus) , on the seeds of the ripe 
pods of the silk cotton tree, Eriodendron anfractuosum , on 
the capsules of Hibiscus cannahinus and Hibiscus sabda- 
riffa , and on the fruits of Malachra capitata and Thespesia 
populnea. 
Dysdercus maurus Distant 
Dysdercus maurus Distant, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 590 
(1901) d 
Dysdercus hoivardi var. minor Ballou, West India Bull. 
VII, 70 (1906). 2 
Dysdercus howardi var. minor Ballou =Dysdercus rufi- 
collis L., Hussey, Gen. Cat. Hem., Fasc. Ill, 101 (1929). 
The head above, antennae, except the basal eburneous 
ring of the terminal joint, rostrum, except the castaneous 
base, and legs, black ; the anterior callus and lateral flanges 
of the pronotum ferruginous (5’i) ; the posterior disc of 
the pronotum pale luteous (21”d), margined anteriorly by 
a very fine impressed black line and posteriorly by a 
broader black line, which is itself posteriorly narrowly 
albido-limbate ; the abdominal sternites pale luteous, some- 
times with a greenish tinge (21”d-23”d-25’”d) , the second 
to sixth visible sternites with a very narrow black anterior 
margin, finer on the discal region and broader as a whole 
on the posterior sternites; the head below, the episterna, 
each margined anteriorly by a fine black line, coxse and 
trochanters, lateral flanged margin of the abdomen, the 
whole of the fifth and the anterior half of the sixth visible 
abdominal sternite in the male, fulvous (13’-13’i) ; the 
anterior collar of the pronotum, margined posteriorly by a 
fine impressed black line, the epimera and the acetabula, 
eburneous; the hemelytra, except the extreme costal mar- 
