64 PHYTOPHAGA. 



PACHYBRACHYS. 



Pachybrachys, Suffrian, Monogr. Linn. Entom. iii. p. Ill (1848, ex Chevrolat). 



The species of this genus amount, at present, to about 170. Central America is 

 represented by about twenty-six, Europe by the same number, while North and South 

 America seem to possess the greatest number. From the genus Scolochrus, to which 

 the present one is closely allied, it is principally distinguished by the differently- 

 constructed prosternum and the elytral punctuation : yet there are instances in which 

 the separation of the two genera is difficult and unsatisfactory. The elongation of the 

 posterior thighs in the male, to which I have drawn attention in the genus Crypto- 

 cephalus, is also clearly visible in the genus Pachybrachys. 



1. Pachybrachys fenestratus. 



Light brown below ; thorax widened behind the middle, surface rather closely and distinctly punctured on the 

 darker parts, more sparingly on the lighter places, light yellow, the disk occupied by a brown n-shaped 

 mark connected at each side with a ring of the same colour : elytra with irregular-shaped deep-punctured 

 striae, enclosing smooth elevated spaces, of which four are placed in pairs near the sutural margin, a 

 larger transverse space immediately below the shoulder and another similarly-shaped one below the middle 

 near the lateral margin ; all these spaces, as well as the apex, are bright yellow and irregularly divided 

 by the brown punctured striae, of which two unite close to the suture, but at some distance from the 

 apex, and two, enclosing a much wider space, near the lateral margin ; a spot at the shoulder, connected 

 by an oblique line extending to the suture, as well as two transverse narrow bands near the lateral margin, 

 dark brown : femora with a whitish spot near the apex. 



Length 1 \ line. 



Hab. Mexico, San Andres, Tuxtla {Salle). 



Only a single specimen from M. Salle's collection is before me, the characteristic 

 sculpture of the elytra of which will not allow it to be confounded with any other 

 species ; it approaches, however, in that respect somewhat T. pumicatus of Cuba ; but 

 may be distinguished from it by the wider and much more distinctly punctured thorax, 

 as well as by the different shape of the elevated spaces and the transverse bands of the 

 elytra. The antennae in the present specimen are unfortunately wanting. 



2. Pachybrachys hasmatodes. (Tab. IV. fig. 11.) 



Pachybrachys hamatodes, Suffr. Monogr. vii. p. 150 \ 



Deep black ; basal joint of the antennas, sides of the thorax, some more or less distinct spots of the elytra, 

 apex of the pygidium, and the base of the thighs blood-red ; the entire upper surface closely pubescent 

 and punctured. 



Hab. Mexico, Oaxaca \ La Parada {Salle). 



This species is variable and closely allied to P. pubescens (Oliv.) from North America, 

 with which it forms the second group of Suffrian's monograph, both being distinguished 

 from all others by the pubescence which covers their upper parts. The specimen on 

 our Plate is from La Parada, and differs slightly in its colour from the type in the 

 Berlin Museum, which I have examined. 



