MORDELLA. 279 
subserrate, much longer than broad, moderately dilated, 5-8 a little more distinctly serrate; elytra 
moderately long; beneath cinereo-pubescent, the ventral segments black at the apex; pygidium short 
and stout, blunt at the tip, not twice the length of the hypopygium in either sex, a little shorter in the 
female; legs, including the tibial spurs, black. 
Var, The prothorax with a median basal patch and the sides in front alone cinereous; the elytra with a 
little additional cinereous pubescence at the extreme apex. 
Length to end of the elytra 33-44, to tip of the pygidium 42-53, millim.; breadth 14-13 millim. (¢ 92.) 
Hab. Mxxico, Iguala in Guerrero (Hége), Chilpancingo (H. H. Smith), Capulalpam 
(Sallé). 
Five examples, four of the type and one of the variety. Allied to MW. albopicta and 
M. sellata, but with the pygidium still shorter. The elytra have merely a whitish- 
pubescent oblique mark before and a transverse spot on the disc beyond the middle ; 
in the variety the apices are also whitish-pubescent. The species is apparently confined 
to Western Mexico. The variety is from Capulalpam. 
16. Mordella leucosticta. (Tab. XII. fig. 5.) 
Elongate, rather narrow, black ; the head cinereo-pubescent ; the prothorax with indications of a broad black 
median vitta and a large black spot in the middle on either side of it, for the rest cinereo-pubescent ; 
the scutellum cinereo-pubescent ; the elytra each with an oblique stripe extending from the shoulder 
downwards towards the suture (widened behind into a triangular mark and about reaching to the basal 
third of the elytron, but not nearly extending to the suture) and a narrow fascia a little beyond the 
middle (not reaching the suture or lateral margin and more or less excised in front and behind) cinereo- 
pubescent, the rest of the pubescence black ; the pygidium cinereo-pubescent at the sides in front, for the 
rest black. Last joint of the maxillary palpi stout in both sexes, triangular, broader in the male ; antenne 
black with the basal three or four joints testaceous, rather long, joints 3 and 4 slender, 4 much longer 
than 3, 5-11 moderately widened, much longer than broad, 5 triangular, fully twice as broad as 4, 5-7 
in the male a little more distinctly serrate ; elytra moderately long; beneath with the pubescence in 
great part black, the sides of the ventral segments in front and the metasternum cinereo-pubescent ; 
pygidium rather slender, long and acuminate, about twice the length of the hypopygium; legs black, the 
anterior femora in some examples fusco-testaceous, the tibial spurs pale testaceous. 
Length to end of the elytra 23-4, to tip of the pygidium 34-54, millim.; breadth 1j-1? millim. (¢ 9.) 
Hab. GuateMA.a, San Isidro (Champion); Nicaracua, Chontales (Janson); Panama, 
Bugaba, Tolé (Champion). 
Six examples. ‘These vary greatly in size, but the elytral markings are constant. 
The longer and more slender pygidium and the testaceous tibial spurs distinguish 
M. leucosticta from M. albopicta, M. tetraspilota, &c. This is one of several closely 
allied Central-American species. 
17. Mordella astuta. 
Short and narrow, black ; the head, the entire base of the prothorax narrowly, and the elytra with the suture 
very narrowly from the base to a little beyond the middle and an ill-defined obliquely placed V-shaped 
mark at the base laterally cinereous- or brownish-cinereous-pubescent, the rest of the pubescence 
black. Palpi pitchy-brown, the last joint of the maxillary pair darker, the latter triangular, its apical 
and inner sides about equal in length ; antenne piceous or black, the basal joints paler, joints 3 and 4 
slender, subequal, 5-11 moderately widened, 5-10 serrate, gradually decreasing in length, 9 and 10 
