Genus. Sphærocoris, Burmeister. Tetyra, Fabr. Cimex, Drury.
Sphærocoris Argus. Lutea, guttis 15 pallidis sive rubris nigro-cinctis. (Long. Corp. lin. 4.)
Syn. Cimex annulus, Fabr. Ent. Syst. 4. 82. 10. Syst. Rh. 132. 20. (Tetyra A.)
Cimex Argus, Drury, App. vol. 3. (nec Fabr. Syst. Rh. 533.) Stoll Cim. pl. 7. fig. 50.
Sphærocoris Argus, Burmeister Hemipt. 391. No. 2?
Scutellera gibbosa, Pal. Beauv. Ins. d'Afr. et d'Amer. Hemipt. pl. 5. b. f. 3.
Habitat: Sierra Leone.
Head dark cream colour, with two black lines from the front to the hinder part. Thorax dark cream, with two waved bands crossing it from side to side, of a darker colour. Scutellum very large, and entirely covering the abdomen. This part is high and rounded, of the same colour with the rest of the insect, having a number of oval, circular, and other shaped marks thereon. Beneath dark-cream; breast and fore-part lightest. Rostrum extending below the hinder legs, all of which are of the same dark cream colour with the other parts.
There is some confusion as to the specific names of the insects composing the present genus. The Tetyra Argus of Fabricius, with which the species here figured (from Sierra Leone) was considered identical by Drury, is an inhabitant of South America. Dr. Burmeister has also confused it with a species from the Cape of Good Hope.