THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 207 



on account of the connection of the anterior and fourth spots, resulting 

 from this very development, the present variety can only be said to have 

 ten spots instead of twelve. Another variety of which, not having met 

 with it, I have not before spoken, is recorded by Mr. W. H. Harrington in 

 a previous number of this periodical (Can. Ent. xiv., 8). It is one 

 " having only two spots (the anterior one on each elytron)." This must 

 certainly be an interesting and widely deviating form. 



As might be supposed, there are many gradations between these varie- 

 ties, undoubtedly the result of promiscuous unions. In some the fourth 

 spot, in others the connecting line, and in others still the basal and antero- 

 basal spots are so decidedly defective that the varieties can not be deter- 

 mined by merely observing the outside of the elytra. In all such cases 

 the difficulty can be easily overcome by opening the elytra and holding 

 the insect up to the light, the under side toward you, when it will instantly 

 be apparent what parts are not green on the outside, and the merest mark- 

 ing of a lighter color be detected with certainty. The two elytra are 

 almost always alike in this respect, though sometimes one will have a 

 faint, broken trace of a thread, while the other has none. We may notice 

 that the spots in sex-giittata are arranged after nearly the same pattern as 

 in vulgaris ; and that where in the latter a marking becomes slight and 

 very narrowed, it is often entirely erased in the former, the tendency of the 

 markings in sex-giittata being to become more rounded and not lengthened 

 out. Thus the curved marking at the extremity of the elytron in vulgaris 

 becomes two in this species, as is likewise the case with the curved basal 

 marking. 



The appended table shows the relative number of individuals of each 

 variety out of 49 specimens taken this summer. It will be noticed that 

 the greater number belong to the second variety, the one with the rudi- 

 mental fourth spot. Of the eighth variety I have met with none fhis year, 

 but have taken several within a few years past. As the season is too 

 far advanced now for taking the species, further observations on this 

 interesting relation in number between the varieties must be deferred until 

 next summer. Were it not for this, I should have endeavored to make 

 these observations more exact by examining a much larger number of 

 specimens before publishing the present article. However, this may serve 

 the purpose of a foundation for further investigations on the subject. 



