532 PHYTOPHAGA. 



Head longer than broad ; frontal tubercles strongly raised ; vertex impunctate, foveolate ; eyes very large ; 

 carina distinct ; clypeus transversely thickened ; labrum black ; antennae two thirds the length of the 

 body, flavous, the seventh and eighth joints slightly, the terminal one distinctly, marked with fuscous, 

 the second and third joints very short, nearly equal ; thorax subquadrate, the sides nearly straight, the 

 surface without foveae, rather convex, with a few minute and scattered punctures, dark green, with an 

 obsolete longitudinal lateral and a central piceous band ; scutellum piceous ; elytra convex, widened 

 posteriorly, with a short longitudinal sulcation below the shoulder, dark green, a spot at the middle of 

 the base, a longitudinal stripe from the shoulder to the middle connected posteriorly with an obscure 

 transverse band, and a spot below the middle, piceous ; femora and the claws piceous, the tibiae and tarsi 

 pale green. 



Eab. Panama, Bugaba (Champion). A single specimen. 



The piceous spots of the elytra are probably subject to variation, or may disappear 

 altogether. The large size and non-foveolate thorax, as well as the fine punctuation of 

 the elytra, will separate B. piceo-notata from any of the green-coloured species. 



Section 2. Antennae with the third joint distinctly longer (often much longer) 



than the second. 



In this section I include all those species which have a distinctly longer, sometimes 

 very much longer, third joint to the antennae, this joint here being at least twice the 

 length of the second. The division of the genus into two sections is rather an arbi- 

 trary one, but it is adopted for the convenience of determining the very numerous 

 species; and it is necessary to observe that cases occur in which the intermediate 

 length of the joint in question leaves it often doubtful in which section to look for the 

 species : this could not be avoided, and is, as a rule, rare. In addition to the numerous 

 species included in this section of Biabrotica, there are many others with the antennee 

 thus formed which closely resemble similarly-coloured species of this genus, but yet will 

 be found to possess appendiculate (not bifid) claws, and generally in connection with 

 a deep thoracic transverse groove (instead of two foveae) ; these I have been obliged 

 to separate from Biabrotica, and an examination of the claws will in all cases be 

 necessary to determine the true position of any species. Two species, B. tripunctata 

 and B. foveipennis, described by me, really belong to Malacosoma, and are here 

 referred to that genus. In regard to colour, it seems that in Biabrotica, as well as in 

 other genera, a number of very closely-allied species exist which can only be separated 

 by attaching importance to small but evidently constant differences ; and such differ- 

 ences, if not observed or regarded as specific, would gradually link together a great 

 number of forms which in the end would diverge into species totally distinct from a 

 given type. 



