PACHYBRACHYS. 147 
of darker colour, and different elytral sculpture; we have, however, some few inter- 
mediate specimens, which show that no great stress can be laid on these differences. 
The elytra in the Guatemalan insects, and also in one from Amula, have a nearly black 
round spot placed across the suture near the apex, this spot being bounded above by a 
narrow zigzag flavous spot (which sometimes extends laterally or is composed of several 
spots partly united), and they have other bright and raised flavous spots placed below 
the shoulder at the sides and round the scutellum ; in the type their entire surface is 
paler, the flavous stripes and spots are less prominent (of a round dark sutural spot 
Suffrian says nothing), and the surface more evenly punctured. In the Guatemalan 
specimens the elytral punctuation is also partly arranged in double rows and interrupted 
in front of the flavous spots, and the thorax is mottled with flavous and dark brown ; 
it is possible that these are really specifically distinct from P. hepaticus, but in the 
absence of sufficient material for comparison it is better to treat them as a local 
variety. 
20 (a). Pachybrachys mexicanus. (Tab. XX XIX. fig. 9.) 
Black below; above pale greyish, closely punctured throughout; elytra without longitudinal interspaces, a 
spot on the shoulder, two or three others placed obliquely near the apex, and an elongate spot near the 
suture below the middle, black. 
Length 2-1 line. 
Hab. Mexico, near the city (H. H. Smith). 
P. mexicanus although very closely allied to P. hepaticus differs from that species in 
the following details:—The general shape is less cylindrical and robust, which is 
especially apparent in the elytra; the latter are evenly and closely punctured through- 
out, without any traces of smooth longitudinal spaces except at the lateral margin, this 
part remaining narrowly impunctate and nearly white in colour, and the spots are also 
different in shape and position. The eyes are unusually widely separated in both sexes ; 
the intraocular space is very closely and deeply punctured, and pale greyish in colour 
with some obscure dark markings. The antenne extend a little beyond the base of the 
thorax in the male, and resemble those of P. hepaticus. The thorax is less cylindrical 
than in P. hepaticus, narrowed at the sides, with an obscure lateral depression above, 
and extremely closely punctured. The elytra are rather flattened along the suture, and 
a little less closely punctured than the thorax (especially near the apex); near the apex 
and close to the suture is an elongate blackish spot, and at the sides are three others 
(more or less distinct) placed obliquely above each other, a similar spot being placed at 
the shoulder and sometimes another near the scutellum ; the lateral margin is accom- 
panied by a narrow smooth whitish space. The underside and legs are blackish, with 
a yellowish spot on the last abdominal segment and another at the apex of the femora. 
The four specimens obtained agree closely with each other. 
U2 
