MONACHUS.—CRYPTOCEPHALUS. 99 
is fulvous, the legs also being of this colour in one specimen, in the others the latter 
are piceous. The thorax in the San José example has two small piceous spots (as in 
the type); in the others these spots are wanting, and the punctuation is scarcely, if at 
all, visible. The elytra have the base narrowly margined with piceous, this colour in 
one specimen extending downwards fora short distance along the suture ; the punctures 
are finer posteriorly, but they do not disappear (as stated by Suffrian). It will be seen, 
therefore, that without more specimens for comparison it would be inadvisable to 
describe the present insect as new. 
* 
CRYPTOCEPHALUS (p. 42). 
In this as in so many other genera of Phytophaga, the separation of specimens into 
species is very often connected with insuperable difficulties, these insects being subject 
to great variation ; and there is little doubt that many of the species at present regarded 
as distinct will be found to be mere varieties. Even the punctuation of the elytra, a 
character used by Suffrian to divide the species into a large number of groups, offers 
no certain guide ; for example, in the same species the transverse smooth space which 
frequently interrupts the lateral striz behind the shoulders is present in one, and absent 
in another specimen, while the strize themselves do not always run in the same direction 
in the different individuals. Leeonte has briefly described many North-American 
species; but short diagnoses in the Cryptocephalide, a family represented by so many 
closely-allied species, even in the same localities, are of no assistance to a monographer, 
and it is therefore quite possible that some of the species treated as new in this work 
may prove to be identical with some already described. ‘here are, however, I believe, 
but few species common to North America and our region, and I have, as far as pos- 
sible, avoided describing from single or doubtful specimens. Very many additional 
species have now to be added to our list. 
‘Cryptocephalus abruptus (p. 42). 
To the locality Mexico, add :—Santa Clara in Chihuahua, Tupataro in Guanajuato 
(Hoge). 
I refer two specimens from the above localities to C. abruptus. C. maculipennis, 
Suffr., is very probably a variety of this species; it seems only to differ from it in 
having the elytral bands broken up into spots. Both insects were obtained at 
Tupataro. Suffrian says nothing about the punctuation of the elytra being arranged in 
pairs, a character common to both C. abruptus and C. maculipennis, between which the 
brown bands are placed; the latter are, without doubt, subject to interruption in 
various ways. 
02 
