SCYMNUS. 231 



13. Scymnus pictus. (Tab. XII. fig. 23.) 



Ovalis, niger, elytris postice macula transversa irregulari pedibusque aurantiacis. Long. 1 milliin. 

 Mas, capite, prothorace subtus et ad latera rufis. 



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



This little species is very distinctly oval in form, pointed behind, and it is rather 

 strongly convex, and clothed with grey pubescence. The elytra! red spot is placed at 

 about one-third from the apex and quite free ; it is rather more transverse in the 

 female than in the male. The body beneath is almost wholly black ; the prothorax is 

 red in the male beneath, and with the sides indeterminately so, and the head is also 

 red in this sex. The supposed female is smaller, and has the thorax and head black. 

 The legs have rather wide femora, receiving the tibiae in grooves, and are wholly 

 orange-red. There are but two specimens of this species. I cannot recall to mind 

 any Scymnus similarly marked. 



14. Scymnus coloratus. (Tab. XII. fig. 25.) 



Niger, suborbicularis, vix pubescens, nitidus, capite prothoraceque albis, hoc macula magna discoidali interdum 

 marginem anticum attingente nigra: elytris vel nigris, vel nigris disco plus minusve sanguineo ; pedibus 

 flavis. Long. 1-1*75 millim. 



Mas, capite albo ; femina, capite infumato, elytrorum margine apicali late albo. 



Hob. Mexico, Teapa in Tabasco (H. H. Smith) ; Guatemala, Capetillo (Champion) ; 

 Panama, Volcan de Chiriqui, Peria Blanca, Tole (Champion). 



This is a variable and perplexing species. The examples which I suppose to be the 

 males are more orbiculate and larger than the three others, which from their darker 

 heads appear to be females ; and in these males (?) two have the elytra more or less 

 suffused with a blood-red discoidal patch, viz. one from Teapa and one from the Volcan 

 de Chiriqui, while one from the latter locality and one from Peria Blanca have them 

 wholly black. The body beneath is black. The legs are yellow. The three females (?) 

 are one from Teapa, one from Capetillo, and one from Tole ; they have the thorax narrowed 

 in front, and its sides continuous in outline, or very nearly so, with that of the elytra. 

 S. coloratus has very much the appearance of an Ortalistes (especially of 0. immersus), 

 and, indeed, I think it may have to be removed to that genus. The distinction between 

 Scymnus and the allied genera is very slight, as may be seen by reference to Chapuis, 

 in Lacordaire's ' Genera des Coleopteres,' xii. p. 206. 



The example from Peria Blanca is more like that from Chiriqui, but is half the size. 



15. Scymnus tardus. 



Scymnus tardus, Muls. Spec. Col. Trim, secur. p. 955 l ; Crotch, Rev. Coccin. p. 270 2 . 



Hob. Mexico, Jalapa (Hoge), Atoyac in Vera Cruz, Teapa in Tabasco (H. II. Smith) ; 

 Guatemala, Zapote (Champion) ; Panama, Bugaba, San Miguel in the Pearl Islands 

 (Champion). — Bkazil l 2 , Bahia (coll. Crotch, ex Reiche). 



