336 PHYTOPHAGA. 



Hab. Mexico, Saltillo in Coahuila (Br. Palmer), Presidio (Forrer). 



The testaceous elytral stripe in this species is broad and perfectly straight, and not 

 narrowed at the base ; the punctures in front of the eyes are very distinct ; the elytral 

 epipleurse are obscure testaceous, and more distinctly of that colour immediately below 

 the shoulder ; the space below the base is not depressed. As there are sixteen speci- 

 mens before me which all agree in the above particulars, and which I can keep perfectly 

 separate from all the others, I thought it best to describe the species as new, even if it 

 should prove identical with another. The short and insufficient descriptions of simi- 

 larly coloured insects of different authors, often founded on single specimens only, are 

 no guide to a certain determination, and nothing remains but to redescribe the species 

 from certain localities to enable the student to recognize them with more certainty, 

 even if they should prove afterwards to be identical with one or other insufficiently 

 described form. 



33. Systena capitata. (Tab. XX. fig. 6.) 



Below black ; base of the femora testaceous ; base of the head fulvous, finely rugose ; labrum black ; thorax 

 testaceous ; elytra finely punctured, testaceous, the suture and a narrow longitudinal band at the middle 

 of each elytron, abbreviated behind, black. 



Length 2| lines. 



Upper part of the head fulvous, the extreme base piceous, finely transversely rugose and punctured between 

 the eyes ; lower part of the face testaceous ; frontal tubercles moderately distinctly raised ; labrum and 

 palpi black ; antennae obscure fulvous, the first joint and the apex of the following piceous, the last four 

 joints entirely dark fulvous; thorax transverse, with a few extremely minute punctures, the basilar 

 depression, as usual, rather obsolete ; scutellum black ; elytra more distinctly punctured than the thorax, 

 the discoidal stripe narrow and of about half the width of the sutural one, and placed nearly between the 

 lateral and sutural margins ; elytral epipleurae testaceous ; legs of the same colour, the apices of the 

 femora above and those of the tibiae piceous ; tarsal joints also stained with the same colour at their apices ; 

 underside black. 



Hab. Mexico, Guanajuato (coll. Salle). 



This seems to be a good and distinct species, which may be at once known by the 

 finely wrinkled and punctured base of the head, the black labrum and underside, and 

 by the position of the elytral stripe, which is not placed near the lateral margin, but at 

 some distance from it. Two specimens agreeing in every way are contained in 

 M. Salle's collection. 



34. Systena laticoUis. (Tab. XX. fig. 10.) 



Obscure greenish testaceous ; the sixth, seventh, and eighth joints of the antennae black ; thorax transverse 

 and narrow ; elytra obsoletely punctate-striate, the interstices irregularly punctured, a round spot at the 

 base and another below the middle dark brown. 



Var. Entirely pale greenish testaceous. 



Length 3 lines. 



Head impunctate, the frontal tubercles divided by a deep groove ; eyes prominent ; antennae two thirds the 

 length of the body, slender, the third and following joints very elongate and each three times as long as 

 the second, the three basal joints dark fulvous, the base of the two following ones piceous, the sixth to the 



