1854.] 73 



May oO th. 

 Vice President Bridges in the chair. 



The Committees on Dr. Le Conte's papers, read 9th and 16th inst., 

 on Mr. Charles Girard's papers, read 16th and 23d inst., severally re- 

 ported in favor of their publication in the Proceedings. 



Synopsis of the Cuc?tiides of the United States. 

 By Johk L. Le Conte, M. D. 



Catagenus Westwood. 



1. C. rufus Westw. Zool. Journ. 5, 221. Cueujus rufus Fabr. Ent. Syst. 

 emend, suppl. 123 ; Syst. El. 2, 93. Oliv. 74 bis, tab. 1, fig. 3. 



Middle, Southern and Western States. This species varies in size from -18 to 

 55 of an inch. The posterior angles of the thorax are usually prominent, on 

 account of the sinuosity of the sides near the base ; sometimes this sinuosity is 

 very faint, then the posterior angles, although rectangular, are not prominent. 

 Newman's C. punctic-ollis (Ann. Nat. Hist. 2, 398) is described as having 

 but 6 striae on each elytron, (the 5th and 6th stria? are said to be indistinct.) Now, 

 in some specimens, which cannot be separated from C. rufus, the fifth and sixth 

 striae are not well marked, but in all that I have seen the seventh stria is quite 

 obvious. As the elytra are declivous at the sides beyond the seventh stria, I 

 think it probable that this seventh stria is constant in the gpnus, in which case 

 there is no reason why Newman's species should not be united with C. rufus. 



Cuctjius Fabr. 



1. C. clavipes Fabr. Gen. Ins. Mantiss. 233, (1790) ; Ent. Syst. emend. 1 , 

 2, 94. Olivier, Enc. Meth. 6, 242, (1791); Ins. 74 bis, tab. 1, fig. 1. 



Middle and Western States, not rare ; found principally under the bark of 

 Liriodendron, but not confined to that tree. This species is omitted in Fabri- 

 cius' Systema Eleutheratorum. 



2. C. puniceus Mann. Bull. Mosc. 1843, 303. Er. Ins. Deutschl. 309. 

 Sitka ; I have not seen this species. By an oversight, Mr. White, in the British 



Museum Catalogue, quotes Motschulsky for the name. 



By another oversight in the same Catalogue, C. sanguinolentus and haema- 

 todes, European species, are mentioned as found in North America, while our 

 common species, C. clavipes, is said to inhabit South America. Reference to 

 these errors is perhaps needless, as attention has already been called to them by 

 Schaum, (Bericht, &c. 1851, p. 55 t ) but they are merely mentioned in this place 

 for the information of those to whom Schaum's Report is not accessible. 



Pediacus Shuckard. 



1. P. planu s, depressus, fuscus, opacus, dense punctat.us tenuiter pubescens, 

 fronte bifoveata, thorace latitudine vix breviore, antrorsum paulo an^ustato, 

 lateribus subrepandis pone medium oblique emarginatis, angulis posticis pro- 

 minulis, elytris punctulatis lateribus declivibus, stria suturali profunda. Long. 

 -12 14. 



Silvanus planus Le Conte, Agassiz' Lake Superior, 223. 



Lake Superior, rare. The fourth, sixth and eighth joints of the antennae are a 

 little smaller than the third, fifth and seventh ; the last three joints are twice as 

 wide as the eighth. The anterior angles of the thorax are rounded. One speci- 

 men is paler colored and almost rufous. 



2. P. subglaber, depressus, testaceus, nitidus, vix subtilissime pubescens. 

 capite thoraceque punctatis, fronte excavata, thorace latitudine paulo breviore, 

 lateribus subquadridentatis (denticulo postico ante basin posito) disco^late bi- 

 impresso, elytris obsoletius punctatis lateribus elevatis, margine sulcato, stria 

 suturali distincta. Long. *14. 



One specimen, North Carolina, Mr. Zimmermann. The antennae are a little 



