THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 333 



SYNOPSIS OF THE GENUS TEGRODERA. 



(Order, Coleoptera; Feimily, Meloidse.) 



BY FRANK E. BLAISDELL, SR., SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 



Recently while studying the Meloidse in the collection of the 

 California Academy of Science, San Francisco, a small series of 

 ten specimens of a form of Tegrodera from Arizona was studied 

 and considered worthy of a name. It is a race of Tegrodera erosa 

 Lee, and its description will give an opportunity to review the 

 genus as a whole. The species and races of Tegrodera have never 

 been brought together in one paper, and the present time seems 

 to be very opportune for so doing. 



The genus Tegrodera was erected by Le Conte. It is character- 

 ized by having the penultimate joint of the tarsi cylindrical, the 

 lower portion of the claws shorter than the upper and connate; 

 the labrum is emarginate and the body glabrous. 



The species and races may be separated as follows: 

 Elytral reticulations small and close; transverse fascia broad, sub- 

 equal in width and distinct; meshes more or less pale to 



black laticincta. 



Elytral reticulations coarse and well separated; transverse piceous 

 fascia variable. 



Transverse fascia obsolete, reduced to a subtriangular 



marginal blotch; meshes yellow inornata. 



Transverse fascia narrow, more or less constricted at 



middle of each elytron, sometimes divided into a 



marginal and sutural subtriangular blotch; meshes 



piceous black. 



Suture pale, sometimes blackish in basal third, meshes 



black erosa . 



Suture black, meshes decidedly black as a rule, the black 

 tending to diffusion aloga. 



Tegrodera erosa Lee. — Head red, pronotum black or varied 

 with red. Elytral reticulations very coarse; colour pale orange 

 yellow with the tips always piceous for a short distance. Legs 

 and under surface of the body black. 



In the male the oblique frontal grooves and fovea of the 

 vertex are strong; the median frontal fovea is similar in 



October, 1918 



