Vol. XXvii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 2QI 



Coloration. General color of pronotum and tegmina cinnamon buff. 

 Pronotum with a large polished blackish brown mesal spot, which nar- 

 rows slightly caudad and is in full contact with the caudal margin of 

 the pronotum. 3 Tegmina with proximal fifth of humeral trunk blackish 

 brown; a broad band of warm sepia crosses the exposed proximal por- 

 tions of the discoidal fields of the tegmina when at rest; the distal 

 portion of the discoidal field of the sinistral tegmen, exposed when at 

 rest, is again suffused, but less heavily, with snuff brown. Dorsal 

 surface of abdomen shining blackish chestnut, margined laterad with 

 cinnamon buff, all but a brief basal portion of the supra-anal plate of 

 this color. Underparts and limbs shining blackish chestnut, the ven- 

 tral surface of the abdomen with medio-lateral spots on the proximal 

 segments and each segment with smaller latero-marginal blotches of 

 yellow-ochre. 



The specimens before us undoubtedly represent the inten- 

 sive coloration of the present species. The insect probably 

 shows all of the color variation, due to recession and intensi- 

 fication, found in the series of colosscus before us. 



Specimens Examined: 6, 5 females, I immature male. 



Cincinnati, Santa Marta, Colombia, VII, 10, 1913 (M. A. 

 Carriker, Jr.; fundacion), 5 9 , i juv. $ [Hebard Cln.]. 



Blaberus colosseus (Illiger). (Plate XV, figs. 2 to 5). 



1802. Blatta Colossca Illiger, Mag. Insektenkunde, I, p. 186. [Deme- 

 rara, [British Guiana].] 



1862. B![abera] mexicana Saussure, Rev. Mag. Zool., 2e Ser., XIV, 

 p. 233. [Mexico.] 



1864. Blabera mexicana Saussure, Mem. 1'hist. Nat. Mex., IV, p. 

 234. [Tampico, Tuxpan, Cordoba, etc., Mexico; New Orleans, Louisi- 

 ana.] 



Saussure, considering B. gigantea and B. colosscus synony- 

 mous, described mexicana in 1862, this name being based on 

 Mexican material showing features of difference from y'njan- 

 tea almost exactly as had been described for colossea by Illi- 

 ger. Saussure's more detailed discussion of mexicana in 1864 

 shows convincingly that the name is an absolute synonym of 

 colosseus. 



3 In the species of the present genus showing this feature, large 

 series almost always include examples having this spot barely reach- 

 ing, or entirely failing to reach, the caudal margin of the pronotum. 

 Overestimation of the importance of this mere individual color vari- 

 ation has resulted in a number of decided errors in the past literature. 



