194 MEMOIRS ON THE COLEOPTERA 



themselves are, however, well characterized as a rule. The tribe is 

 subarctic in habitat, very few, comparatively, entering the tropics 

 and includes in North America a larger number of species perhaps 

 than any other equivalent subdivision of the family. 



Rhagium Fabr. 

 Subgen. Hargium Sam. 



In general habitus this genus harmonizes so little with any other 

 that it would seem out of place anywhere, but the sharply spinose 

 sides of the prothorax suggests a relationship with the Pachyta 

 series in this part of the Lepturini. In the short thick antennae of 

 peculiar structure, prominent prosternal process and strongly 

 costulate elytra, it is wholly isolated in the tribe and is perhaps a 

 surviving remnant of an ancient and extinct line. Our species all 

 belong to the group Hargium of Samouelle, which may have generic 

 rather than subgeneric value, and are more or less close allies of 

 the European inquisitor Linn, (indagator Fabr.). An inspection of 

 the male sexual characters betrays very marked variety, and the 

 material lumped together in almost every cabinet resolves itself 

 into a number of rather well characterized species as follows : 



Glabrous part of the tempora, adjoining the eyes, shorter, always dis- 

 tinctly less than half as long as the latter; longitudinal thoracic 

 elevations always wanting; body shorter in form, the elytra always 

 less than twice as long as wide; species characterizing the more 

 boreal faunal regions 2 



Glabrous part of the tempora more developed, about half as long as the 

 eyes; body more elongate in form; species more austral in^distribu- 

 tion 7 



2 Impunctate median vitta of the prothorax narrow, ill-defined and 

 frequently interrupted; cinereous vestiture dense, imparting a 

 grayer appearance than observable in the following species ; punctures 

 of the head and pronotum dense, very deep and distinct; paler 

 mottling of the elytra small and feeble, the two transverse bands 

 barely traceable; abdomen black throughout; antennae extending 

 scarcely to the base of the prothorax ; tufted cinereous vestiture of the 

 under surface dense and very conspicuous; legs testaceous, with the 

 usual sparse flying hairs, the femora and tibiae blackish distally, the 

 tarsi black; abdominal carina strong, extending well onto the last 

 segment. Female with the fifth ventral as long as the fourth, trape- 

 zoidal, with rounded angles, the truncate and very pubescent apex 

 less than half as wide as the base; last dorsal segment arcuately and 

 moderately narrowing, the apex broadly sinuate, with rounded 



