392 



PHTTOPHAGA. 



Posterior tibiae emarginate at the apex. 

 a. Anterior coxal cavities open. 



EUPLECTROSCELIS. 



Euplectroscelis, Crotch, Proc. Acad. Phil. 1873, p. 75 ; Horn, Class. Col. N. A. 1883, p. 354. 

 ?Homophyla, Harold, Deutsch. ent. Zeitschr. 1877. 



In his description of this genus, Crotch has made no mention of the state of the 

 anterior coxal cavities, although he places the genus near Chcetocnema, in which the 

 cavities are closed. Should this also be the case with the insect described by Crotch, 

 then Eomophyla, Har., is certainly a distinct genus, on account of the open coxal 

 cavities, although the structural characters of both genera seem to be identical in every 

 other respect. Mr. Baly gives Eomophyla as a synonym for Euplectroscelis (Trans: 

 Ent. Soc. 1877, p. 319), and I cannot at this moment find any other published notice 

 with regard to these genera. In Euplectroscelis the posterior tibiae are emarginate at 

 their apices, the emargination itself being shaped anteriorly in a tooth, and the 

 posterior tibise are also broadly sulcate throughout ; these characters, as well as the 

 broadly ovate and convex shape of the species, and the open anterior coxal cavities, 

 will help to distinguish the genus. Lactica dimidiata, Thunberg, belongs to this 

 genus, and seems to be almost identical with Eomophyla adusta, Harold. From Central 

 America no species has been described up till now. 



l. Euplectroscelis variabilis. (Tab. XXII. figg. 1, 2.) 



Dark fulvous, the base and apex of the elytra piceous or black; thorax minutely granulate-punctate; elytra 



finely and closely punctate-striate. 

 Var. a. Elytra black, a transverse spot at the middle of each elytron fulvous. 

 Var. b. Elytra fulvous, the apex only black ; thorax black. 

 < Var. c. Thorax and elytra black. 



,} Var. d. Thorax black, elytra fulvous, antennae with joints 7-8 piceous. 



J Length 1-1 1 line. 



Head impunctate; eyes large; antennas with the second joint thickened and but little shorter than the third; 

 thorax transverse, widened at the middle, the basal margin sinuate at each side, the surface extremely 

 finely or a little more distinctly punctured ; elytra very finely punctate-striate. 



Hob. Mexico, Jalapa (Edge), Orizaba, Vera Cruz (Salle) ; Beitish Hondueas, Rio 

 Hondo (Blancaneaux) ; Guatemala, Chiacam, San Juan in Vera Paz, Capetillo, Duenas, 

 San Geronimo, Cahabon, Cerro Zunil, Sinanja, El Tumbador (Champion) ; Nicaeagua, 

 Chontales (Janson) ; Panama, Volcan de Chiriqui, Bugaba, San Miguel in the Pearl 

 Islands {Champion). 



The impossibility of separating the many coloured and shaped specimens from the 

 above localities into different species, on account of the want of any important struc- 

 tural differences, compels me to look upon these forms as varieties only of a very variable 

 species. The attempt at any separation of these would result in half a dozen species, 



