ORTALISTES. 225 



and equal on the thorax and elytra. The scutellum is red or brownish. The elytra 

 are entirely chestnut-red, but a little paler towards their apices. The pubescence is 

 so fine that it is often worn off. The amount of black on the thorax varies : in some 

 examples the greater part is black, the sides only being rather indefinitely white ; in 

 others the white extends like a round spot for a third of the width. 



4. Ortalistes pexus. 



O. germano quoad formam et staturam similis et affinis ; piceus, minute sed distincte punctatus ; pube brevi 

 depressa, quasi detersa vestitus. Long. 2 millim. 



Hab. Mexico, Atoyac in Vera Cruz, Teapa in Tabasco (H. H. Smith) ; Guatemala, 

 Senahu, Tamahu, Sabo, and San Juan in Vera Paz (Champion) ; Nicaragua, Chon tales 

 (Janson) ; Panama, San Miguel in the Pearl Islands (Champion). 



Hardly so broad, especially across the thorax, as 0. germanus, and perhaps a little 

 more distinctly punctured. The colour is different, being uniform and of a dark 

 pitchy-brown tint. The pubescence is not only more distinct, but seems of a different 

 quality, and gives the impression of being brushed away from the suture on each 

 side, thus reflecting the light as the insect is turned in different directions. 



Specimens from Nicaragua and the Pearl Islands are almost black. 



5. Ortalistes immersns. (Tab. XII. fig. 17.) 



Brevis, fere orbicularis, subtilissime punctatus, tenuissime pubescens, niger ; capite pedibusque flavis ; corpore 



subtus elytrorumque disco late sanguineis. S . 

 Feminse prothoraeis margine antico et laterali anguste flavo, capite nigro-piceo. Long. 1*5 millim. 



Hab. Mexico, Teapa in Tabasco (II. H. Smith) ; Panama, Bugaba, David (Champion). 



It is only when seen under favourable circumstances that this little insect appears 

 pubescent ; it is so closely punctured as to be semiopaque. The thorax, the base and 

 margin of the elytra, as widely as one third of their breadth and more widely still at 

 the apex, and the head and body in the female, are black. The very short antennae 

 and trophi are always yellow, as are the legs. We have received one example of the 

 male, viz. the one from Bugaba, and a female from each of the other localities. 



There is a species of Crypt ognatha very similarly coloured to this insect. 



Subfam. SCYMNIDES. 



The Scymnides consist almost entirely of the genus Scymnus, one of the most 

 generalized types of the Coccinellida?. The genus itself has been divided by Mulsant, 

 but he did not give his divisions, founded on the amount of development of the coxal 

 fossettes, more than subordinate rank. They have, however, been adopted by recent 

 European writers, with whom the ultimate analysis of minute characters is of higher 

 importance than the synthesis of allied forms. 



biol. centr.-amee., Coleopt., Vol. VII., March 1897. 2 G* 



