394 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



course pursued by me and that suggested by Mr. Leng, but, for the above 

 reasons, I anticipate the ultimate decision will be far nearer the former 

 than the latter. 



It is probably true that the various forms defined in the genus 

 Megilla have rather less than full specific value, but the Brownsville 

 modification is so much larger that it may possibly prove to have very 

 nearly specific weight. Another form, from Cuba, in my collection, has 

 the two thoracic spots completely united, but I do not know how con- 

 stantly.* Mr. Leng is, however, wrong in uniting Macroncemia with 

 Anisosticta; it is a valid genus, and so recognized by Dr. Weise, who, 

 however, arbitrarily changed the name to MicroncBinia, a useless proceed- 

 ing, as Macroncemia is amply protected by the laws of priority. 

 Parancemia siniilis is very readily distinguishable from the Californian 

 viitigera, and is not a mere hypothetical race ; it is certainly, at least, 

 a valid subspecies. 



Hippodamia^ Che v. 



I assumed the authorship of Chevrolat for this genus, and not 

 Mulsant, as this seems to be the course adopted by the latter himself in 

 the Monograph (1866). Owing to the large number of recognizable forms 

 and the variability of marivings, unusually pronounced for the Coccinellidas, 

 where ornamentation is frequently so free from marked instability, there 

 will probably always be more or less divergence of opinion regarding 

 specific limitation. The 5-^/^;^^/^ — convergejis group, much the largest of 

 the genus in America, includes many species of indubitable reality, a far 

 greater number, in fact, than the half-dozen recognized by Mr. Leng. 



This ^'Signata — coiivergens series embraces two not very strongly- 

 differentiated groups, one in which there is a transverse subbasal elytral 

 fascia, sometimes more or less permanently disintegrated into spots or 

 wholly wanting, and attended by a general absence or very great reduc- 

 tion or instability of the diverging discal lines of the pronotum, represented 

 by the former, and the other in which the subbasal spots are either want- 

 ing or generally isolated, and accompanied by a very pronounced 



*M. Cubensis, n. subsp. — Smaller and rather less opaque thany«^«7a6w, red, 

 the head black, with the usual acutely ang-ulate frontal spot; pronotum solidly black, 

 the apical and lateral margins alone pale, though broadly ; elytra with the usual 

 spots of/iiscilabris, except that the sutural post-medial is resolved into two spots, 

 each tangent to the suture. Length, 5.0 mm.; width, 2.8 mm. Cuba (Havana). 



The form which I described under the name ///edio lis seems to be that figured 

 by Gorham in the Biologia (V'll, PI. 8, fig. 20). 



