41 



sibly contain many new species ; and, in doing so, I am not 

 actuated so much by personal considerations as by a desire to 

 aid several young entomologists in this vicinity, and by the 

 wish to promote American science in general : pro patria. 

 The "Farmer" is taken at New Harmony, and will therefore 

 come under the eye of Prof. Say : it is my intention, after 

 these descriptions shall have undergone his rigid scrutiny, to 

 republish them, either by themselves, or in some respectable 

 scientific journal. 



HENTZ TO HARRIS. 



CHAPEL HILL, Dec. 3, 1828. 



The mark (?) which you find on some of my insects indicates 

 that they may differ from the one marked without it in my col- 

 lection. Thus, till just now, I was in doubt about 133 ? My 

 No. 133 I caught in Northampton and marked E. marmoratus. 

 Last spring I found 133 ? in vast numbers in February, under 

 the bark of decayed pine trees ; and finding great resemblance 

 with the former, I marked it as you have it. Now, in order to 

 answer accurately your letter, I gave it a careful examination, 

 and discovered this remarkable difference, that whilst my 133 ? 

 and 163 have, besides a dilated suture for the antennas, a distinct 

 and deep groove between that and the edge of the thorax for 

 the reception of the tarsi, when at rest (see Fig. 2), 

 No. 133 has nothing like a groove for the tarsi. The W (/) 

 bristles of this are silvery white on the elytra, but 

 become of a golden yellow, as in 133 ?, as you advance 

 towards the head. Besides this, those bristles or scales form 

 two oblique lines near the end of the elytra, which are obsolete 

 or wanting in 133 ? If I were you, however, I would not 

 add 133 to your genus Tapkeicerus, as the want of the groove 

 may be a good character to make another subgenus of that 



