ABSTRACT
The common name “unique-headed bugs” was coined as descriptive of the peculiar lobed appearance of the elongate head caused by a marked, transverse constriction: the eyes being situated laterally on the anterior lobe and the ocelli dorsally on the posterior lobe. The species are generally relatively small, frail, winged insects that are sometimes carried to great heights by storm winds-some having been collected 5,000 feet in the air by traps on airplane wings. Their somber colors render them inconspicuous among particles of soil and fallen plant parts where many live; some species occur on foliage or wedged between the parts of the flowers. Ten species are cataloged herein for America north of Mexico. A detailed revision for the family is in preparation, but for the present Kritsky’s key to the three subfamilies and nine genera in the Western Hemisphere is the most useful paper for identifying local specimens to genus.
