118 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



writer sent specimens of our species to Mr. Lesne of the National 

 Museum in Paris, explaining the above conditions, but in spite of 

 his careful research he failed to find the original Olivier type. It 

 may be preserved elsewhere but there is little chance that it is 

 other than our common mottled tortoise-beetle. Mr. Lesne 

 found a specimen however, received at the Paris Museum in 1798 

 which is labelled "C. guttata Oliv." in an ancient handwriting not 

 that of Olivier, and which he believes was probably determined 

 by comparison with the type. This specimen was collected in 

 Saint-Thomas W.I. by Mauge about 1797 and agrees well with a 

 South Carolina specimen sent to Mr. Lesne for comparison, ex- 

 cept in the size of the yellow spots. The writer believes there- 

 fore, that we must readopt guttata Oliv. and suppress signifera 

 Hbst. 



The economic literature contains much information about these 

 beetles but has been, for the most part, neglected in preparing this 

 paper. Those interested can find many references in the various 

 parts of the Bibliography of Economic Entomology published by 

 the Department of Agriculture, but as usual, care must be used in 

 accepting the determinations. 



The species reported from America north of Mexico are as fol- 

 lows, but certain of them should be dropped from our lists : 



1. Porphyraspis cyanea (Say) occurs in Florida and Georgia. 

 As the species develops exclusively upon palmetto, the locality 

 Kentucky cited by Spaeth must be incorrect. Larvae found by 

 Hubbard and Schwarz in May 1875 differ but little from the 

 figures of the two species of this genus by Candeze 1861, and 

 Olliff 1884. 



2. Mesomphalia ephippium (Licht), described from North 

 America is believed to have been wrongly labelled (cf . Melsheimer 

 Cat. 1853, p. 119) and has justly been omitted from our lists 

 since 1853. 



3. Mesomphalia chevrolati Boh. has appeared in our lists 

 since Crotch 1874 and the only basis the writer has found for its 

 inclusion is the allusions to the genus by Crotch 1873 (Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. PhiL, 1873, p. 76) and by Le Conte and Horn 1883 

 (Class. Coleop. N. A., p. 356). In the Spaeth catalogue the name 

 appears as Pseudomesomphaliapunicea var. chevrolati Boh. Noth- 

 ing in its recorded distribution seems to warrant its continued 

 appearance in our lists. 



4. Hilarocassis exclamationis (Linn.) of the tropics from 

 Brazil to the West Indies and Mexico is reported by Horn 1894 

 (Cal. Acad. Sci. (2), vol. 4, p. 344) from El Chinche, Lower Cali- 

 fornia. 



