Vol. XXX] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS lX<) 



that A. lanata Horn and A. pubivcntris Horn are but phases 

 of one species. A. lanata Horn is but a vittate form of the 

 other, as Mr. Fall surmised. A. bicdermanii Skinner. I find, 

 after having carefully examined the type, is almost an absolute 

 synonym of A. lanata Horn. My series shows that the species 

 varies from the typical phase to the vittate phase, var. lanata 

 Horn, on one side and, on the other, to a phase having the 

 markings numerous, small and irregular. The vittate phase 

 may be found in the same territory with the others, but usually 

 is not. In this connection I wish to state that several of our 

 species which have unstable color patterns have the same type 

 of variability, possessing a vittate type of maculation as one 

 extreme and a nebulous as the other. Besides the species just 

 discussed, this condition is found in A. acuta Lee. and A. 

 gemina Horn and approached in A. hepburni Lee. and A. neg- 

 Iccta Fall. 



Acmaeodera plagiaticauda Horn. 



As more specimens of this very fine species have been col- 

 lected we find that it too is very variable. In certain specimens 

 like those from the more desert regions, such as Bishop, Cali- 

 fornia, the lateral fascia of the elytra may have its extreme yel- 

 low instead of being all red. In others the discal markings may 

 be entirely eliminated, leaving but three or four marginal spots. 

 In a couple of specimens from the Sierra Madre Mountains, 

 near San Gabriel, the anterior of the three lateral spots was 

 yellow, the other two the normal red. Those specimens which 

 have all of the spots red, narrow and lateral, like certain ones 

 recently secured by Dr. F. E. Blaisdell near Hullville, Lake 

 County, California, look superficially very much like the rare 

 A. postica Fall. This last can, however, be separated by hav- 

 ing a different type of prosternal margin, by being of a coppery 

 bronze color in contrast to the purplish bronze of the other, and 

 by having the punctures of the elytral striae and intervals of 

 about equal prominence with the striae themselves, poorly de- 

 veloped, whereas in the other the striae and strial punctures 

 are prominent and interval punctures weak. A. plagiaticauda 

 Horn has in most cases been beaten from the manzanita. Arc- 

 tostaphylos, and no doubt breeds in this. 



