1852.] 129 



B, With ten rows of abdominal scales. 



Cnemidophorus PRAESiGNis, B. and G. Ten longitudinal rows of abdominal 

 scales, quadrangular, broader than long. Two subguttural folds, the surface of 

 the posterior one covered with scales of medium size. A transverse band of 

 similar scales extends from one ear opening to the other. Nostrils between the 

 suture of two plates. Scales on the upper part of the body proportionally small; 

 on the tail, elongated, narrow and keeled. The middle region of the back is 

 greenish brown, exhibiting an indistinct medial streak with irregular quadrangles 

 of the same color on each side, separated by a narrow band of deep black. The 

 sides are black, provided with two narrow stripes of yellowish white on each and 

 extending along the tail. Between these stripes, and specially along the abdomen, 

 irregular dots of the color of the stripes are seen scattered. The hind legs and 

 tail are variegated with black and bluish spots. 



Locality. From Chagres, collected by Prof. C. B. Adams. Said' to be also 

 common at Panama. 



Plestiodon obsoletuMj B.and G. Total length about nine inches. Body and 

 limbs rather short and stout ; tail longer than the body, conical, and rapidly 

 tapering away. Parieto-occipital and vertical the largest of all the cephalic 

 plates; rostral, labials, and temporal ones considerably developed. General color 

 greenish white; uniform below ; the scales on the back and sides are thinly mar- 

 ginated with black. 



Locality. Valley of the Rio San Pedro of the Rio Grande del Norte. 



Elgaria nobilis, B. and G. This is the most beautiful species of the 

 genus. The body and tail are slender and elongated ; the limbs slender and 

 rather short. The ventral shields are twelve rowed ; fourteen longitudinal rows 

 of scales on the back, obscurely keeled. The ground color is olivaceous ; the 

 upper surface of the head, the belly and lower surface of the tail, are dotted with 

 black. From the occiput to the origin of the tail, there are nine or ten trans- 

 verse blackish brown bands on the back, covering two or three rows of scale?, 

 margined posteriorly with white. The intermediate spaces between these brown 

 bands are of the same width as the bands themselves. Upwards of twenty brown 

 half-rings are observed on the tail, the width of which is a little less than the 

 intermediate spaces. 



Locality. Fort Webster, Copper mines of the Gila, (Santa Rita del Cobre,) 

 New Mexico. 



The Committee to which was referred Dr. Le Conte's remarks on the 

 Coccinellidse of the United States, and also on his description of a new 

 species of Trombidium, reported in favor of publication. 



Remarks upon the Coccinellid^ of the United States. 

 By John L. Le Conte, M. D. 



It is not my intention on this occasion to present a synopsis or catalogue of the 

 native species belonging to the present group. The very elaborate and carefully 

 written work of Mulsant* renders such a labor entirely superfluous. I propose 

 now merely to present some views on the classification of the genera of this 

 family, and to add descriptions of the new species which have recently been 

 obtained. 



On account of the difficulty of distinguishing the species of Scymnus, I have 

 made new descriptions of all the species observed ; the Corylophi, with but a 

 single exception, are new, and I have, therefore, by adding a new description of 

 that species, completed a monograph of that division of the present family. 



Species des Coleopteres Trimeres Securipalpes. Lyon, 1S50. 



