PCECILESTHUS. 337 
Var. 3. The elytra with a common black transverse median band extending to the lateral margins, the base and 
apex often more or less marked with black. (Spheniscus lecontei, Dej. Cat. 3rd edit. p. 229.) 
Hab. CotomBia?; Braziu?. 
A common species in the southern parts of our region and extending southwards to 
Brazil, and well known in collections under the name of P. nigro-punctatus (Chevr.). 
South-American examples with a black median band to the elytra differ only in colour 
from our insect: with the large amount of material before me I can only treat them as 
a variety of P. nigro-punctatus. Chiriqui specimens have the elytra testaceous at the 
extreme base; those from Panama have the base narrowly (and the apex rather broadly) 
marked with black. In Southern Colombia and elsewhere in Tropical South America 
the banded and unbanded forms inhabit the same localities. P. nigro-punctatus is 
closely allied to P. pictus (Guér.) of Tropical South America; but differs in having the 
elytra more regularly but more feebly convex (not subgibbous towards the base as in 
that species), more finely punctured (the tortuous lines of impressions not so deeply 
impressed), and more regularly spotted with black (especially on the posterior half); the 
anterior angles of the thorax less produced, &c.; both species have the elytra testaceous, 
with irregularly scattered black spots, each of the black spots surrounded by a line of 
punctures, the spots thus appearing slightly raised. The locality Mexico’ would seem 
to require confirmation. A Chiriqui specimen is figured. 
2. Pecilesthus variipes. (Tab. XIV. fig. 9, ¢ .) 
Oblong ovate, feebly convex, reddish-testaceous, shining. Head deeply excavate in front, longitudinally im- 
pressed in the middle between the eyes, the intraocular space rather narrow, closely and coarsely punctured, 
the eyes darker in tint; antenne dark violaceous, about reaching to the first third of the elytra, rather 
stout, joint 4 much longer than 3, joints 4-10 subtriangular (the inner apical angles of each angularly 
extended), decreasing a little in length outwardly, 7-9 the widest, the apical joint oblong and narrower 
than the tenth; prothorax rather broader than long, moderately convex, the base and apex nearly straight, 
the sides completely but not strongly margined, subangularly extended in the middle and rather abruptly 
emarginate before and behind this, and narrowing anteriorly, the anterior angles deflexed and rounded, the 
hind angles subrectangular, the base deeply grooved within between the fovex, the surface rather uneven, 
very irregularly, somewhat sparingly, but rather coarsely punctured, a narrow longitudinal space on the 
middle of the disc impunctate; scutellum finely and sparingly punctured; elytra long, subparallel in their 
basal half, the base shallowly impressed within, deeply and somewhat coarsely punctate-striate, the striz 
here and there irregularly interrupted on the disc towards the base, the interstices feebly convex and 
sparingly but quite distinctly punctured ; beneath almost glabrous, the fifth ventral segment clothed with 
short hairs, the prosternum, the sides of the meso- and of the metasternum and side-pieces, and the flanks 
of the prothorax, rather coarsely punctured, the ventral surface very finely and very sparingly so, the rest 
of the surface nearly smooth; legs long and slender, testaceous, the apices of the femora and the tibiz 
and tarsi violaceous; anterior tibiee in the male slightly curved and with the inner margin somewhat 
thickly clothed with hair. 
Length 11 millim.; breadth 43 millim. (¢.) 
Hab. Nicaracva, Chontales (Belt). 
One example. P. variipes is separated from its allies by the comparatively long and 
uneven thorax, the deeply striate elytra, the structure and colour of the antenne, and 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Coleopt., Vol. IV. Pt. 1, December 1887. 2 XX. 
