DISCODON. 81 
is, I think, due to shrinkage and the tendency to shrivel in the elytra. The head has 
usually a dark spot on the crown in the female. The thoracic spot is oblong. The 
elytra widen a little towards the apex; the humeral vitta is not very distinctly separated 
from the pale margin, but sometimes runs down the discoidal nervure ; the softness of the 
elytra does not admit of the darker and pale portions being ever very distinctly marked. 
Seven specimens have been sent, three of them males. 
7. Discodon vitticolle. 
Fuscum ; capite nigro, ore pedibusque piceis, prothorace lete rufo, nigro-vittato ; elytris piceis, apud humeros 
et externe dilutioribus. Long. 7-8 millim. ¢ 9. 
Mas prothoracis margine laterali plicato-interrupto; unguiculis anticis internis lobo triangulari ad basin 
instructis, intermediis et posticis externis fissis ; abdominis segmento ventrali apicali fisso, apice exciso. 
Hab. Guatemaua, Purula, Tamahu, Chacoj (Champion). 
Var. elytris nigro-fuscis, vitta pallida ab humero usque ad apicem fere provecta. 
Hab. Mexico, Juquila (Boucard, coll. Sallé), Cordova (Hége); GuateMALA, Zapote 
(Champion); Costa Rica (van Patten). 
Variable in the depth of colour of the elytra, and in the more or less vividly tinted 
thorax, this insect in all its forms resembles species of the genera Photinus and 
Photuris. It is perhaps best distinguished by the bright red thorax, with a narrow 
black vitta from the base to the front, or nearly reaching it. The head is black, with 
the chin and mouth pitchy. The bifid apical segment of the male is more deeply cut 
out at the apex than in other species of the genus. 
8. Discodon flavicolle. 
Atrum ; epistomate, ore et prothorace albido-flavescentibus ; capitis basi picea. Long.11-12millim. ¢ 9. 
Mas prothorace margine laterali tenuiter oblique inciso; unguiculis anticis lobatis, intermediis et posticis fissis. 
Hab. Mexico, Cordova (Sallé, Hoge), Jalapa (Hoge). 
Smoky black, a little shining above. Head pitchy or rufous at the base, crown 
black, front and underside yellow ; antenne and palpi fuscous. Thorax shining, pale 
yellow; lateral margin obliquely and finely notched in the middle in the male. Scu- 
tellum and humeral callus yellow. 
This insect almost precisely resembles Photuris lugubris, already described. The 
absence of any white abdominal segments will afford a ready distinction. 
9. Discodon melancholicum. 
Aterrimum ; prothorace nitido, quadrato suborbiculari; elytris rugose coriaceis. Long. 9-10 millim. g¢ 9. 
Hab. Mexico, Leon, Guanajuato (Dugés, coll. Sallé), Parada (Boucard, coll. Sallé). 
Entirely black, excepting that in one example the thorax has the sides pitchy red. 
The head is less constricted behind than is usual in the genus; and the insect has very 
much the appearance of a true Telephorus, being, indeed, of the size and colour of the 
BIOL. CENT.-AMER., Coleopt., Vol. III., Pt. 2, August 1881. M 
