EPICAUTA. 419 
Hab. Norra America, Texas ?.—Mexico, State of Guanajuato’, Hacienda de La 
Noria in Michoacan ', Guadalajara? (Dugés), Morelia in Michoacan (Dugés?, Hoge), 
Michoacan (Sal/é), Atenquique in Jalisco (/é@e). 
We have only received three specimens that can be satisfactorily referred to 
. nigra. Dugés also quotes? Jalapa (Flohr) as a locality, but it is probable that the 
Jalapa insect belongs to another species. E. nigra is one of several very closely-allied 
forms, which are difficult to separate except by male characters; and, as Dugeés 
remarks ?, small examples of it resemble the black variety of E. stigmata. The speci- 
mens I refer to the present species have the pubescence entirely black; the antenne 
long and setaceous*, the first joint elongate, longer than the third, the latter also 
elongate; the thorax longer than broad, more elongate than in E. stigmata, sub- 
parallel at the sides behind, densely and finely punctate, and with well-marked median 
depression ; the anterior tibie with two spurs in the male; the spurs of the posterior 
tibize subequal, stout. Dr. Horn informs me that £. funedris differs from E. nagra, 
Dugés, in its stouter hind tibial spurs, and in not having a median thoracic impression ; 
nevertheless, it is probable they are not really distinct. 
31. Epicauta atricolor. 
Elongate, black or blackish-brown, above and beneath somewhat thickly clothed with similarly-coloured 
decumbent pubescence. Head densely, finely punctate, ohsoletely canaliculate, with a smooth reddish, 
narrow, longitudinal space in the middle between the eyes, the latter large and deeply emarginate ; last 
joint of the maxillary palpi ( d ) elongate-ovate, obliquely truncate at the tip; antenne stout and filiform 
in both sexes, becoming slightly thinner towards the apex, moderately long in the male, a little shorter in 
the female, joint 1 comparatively short, stout, 2 very short, 3 twice as long as 2 and one-half longer than 
4, 4-10 subequal ; prothorax about as long as broad, subcampanulate, densely, finely punctate, and with 
a smooth, impressed median line, the disc depressed in the middle before the base ; elytra densely, finely 
punctate; spurs of the hind tibie rather stout, subequal ; the anterior tibia with two spurs in the male. 
Length 10-14 millim. (¢ 9.) 
Hab. Mexico, Matamoros Izucar, Oaxaca (coll. F. Bates, Sallé), Jalapa (Hedge). 
Eight examples. Specimens of this perplexing species are labelled with the pre- 
occupied name of Cantharis fumosa, St., in the Sallé collection; others are ticketed 
E. nigra, Dugés, teste Haag, in that of Mr. F. Bates. 4. atricolor approaches the 
N.-American E. puncticollis and E. oblita in the form of the antenne, but differs from 
both of them in the densely-punctured head and thorax, decumbent pubescence, and 
longer antenne. The much shorter, stouter, and more filiform antenne separates it 
from E. nigra (as here understood) and £. atripilis; in its bicalcarate anterior tibie in 
the male it agrees with HL. nigra. E. pennsylvanica has a more quadrate thorax, 
unequal hind tibial spurs, more setaceous antenne, &c. In one abraded (? abnormal) 
example from Matamoros Izucar the head and thorax are more coarsely and sparsely 
punctate; it may belong to another species. 
* Dugés’ states that joints 4-10 progressively diminish in thickness ; in his second description” he merely 
3 HH 2 
gives “ filiform.” 
