MORDELLA. 281 
median groove ; palpi testaceous, the last joint of the maxillary pair sometimes darker, the latter broad 
and subequilaterally triangular in the male, smaller and with the apical side shorter than the inner or 
outer sides in the female ; labrum testaceous ; antennz piceous or dark brown with the basal four or five 
joints testaceous, slender, joints 3 and 4 very thin, 4 a little longer than 3, 5-11 wider and very feebly 
serrate, 11 longer and distinctly stouter than 10; elytra moderately long; beneath with a good deal of 
silvery or whitish pubescence ; pygidium long and pointed, compressed laterally, very slender, nearly three 
times the length of the hypopygium, only a little shorter in the female ; legs black, the anterior pair (the 
tips of the tarsi excepted) and the posterior tibial spurs testaceous, the intermediate pair often piceo- 
testaceous, the latter and the anterior pair very slender but with their penultimate tarsal joint very 
distinctly dilated. 
Length to end of the elytra 23-3, to tip of the pygidium 33—4, millim.; breadth 13-1} millim. (¢ 2.) 
Hab. Mexico, Atoyac in Vera Cruz (H. H. Smith); Guaremaua, Senahu, Cachil, and 
San Geronimo in Vera Paz (Champion); Panama, Bugaba (Champion). 
Numerous examples. The pubescence of the upper surface is rather scanty, and the 
ashy- or obscure ashy-pubescent markings are less sharply defined than usual owing to 
the dark ground-colour showing through. The markings of the elytra are placed 
somewhat as in the North-American WM. triloba, Say (figured by J. B. Smith, in Trans. 
Am. Ent. Soc. x. t. 2. fig. 6); but the basal fascia encloses one spot only (instead of 
two) on each elytron. The pygidium is very slender, long, and pointed, and by 
this character alone /. acuticauda may be separated from all the allied species, the 
following excepted. 
20. Mordella analis. 
Closely allied to M. acuticauda, and only differing as follows:—Smaller; the median fascia of the elytra 
broader and straighter, the posterior fascia completely obliterated; the last two or three ventral 
segments testaceous or fusco-testaceous ; the pygidium much shorter, not more than twice the length of 
the hypopygium. 
Length to end of the elytra 27-24, to tip of the pygidium 22-3, millim. 
Hab. Panama, Bugaba, Tolé (Champion). 
Two imperfect examples. Perhaps only a variety of UM. acuticauda, but in our 
series of the latter there is nothing intermediate. UM. amalis resembles M. cingulata 
in its markings, but differs totally from that insect in the form of the antenne, the 
slender and short pygidium, and the slender legs. 
21. Mordella octolineata. (Tab. XII. fig. 8.) 
Comparatively short, black; the head, prothorax, and scutellum densely clothed with yellowish-cinereous 
pubescence, that on the prothorax intermixed with brown hairs which in certain lights assume the 
appearance of four narrow longitudinal stripes; the elytra black, sometimes with an oblique reddish or 
fulvo-testaceous spot below the shoulders, each with four narrow, parallel, more or less distinct, oblique 
stripes of yellowish-cinereous pubescence extending from the base downwards—two of them extending 
to the apex and two of them becoming evanescent at about one-third from the apex,—the rest of the 
surface clothed with brownish-black pubescence ; the pygidium blackish-pubescent, cinereous at the base 
only. Head almost smooth when denuded of pubescence; palpi testaceous, the last joint of the maxillary 
pair a little darker at the tip, the latter elongate-triangular, rather narrow, its inner side longer than the 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Coleopt., Vol. IV. Pt. 2, Judy 1891. 200 
