398 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The sp>fcies of the converge/is group are fewer in number, those 

 described thus far being g/acialls, convergejis, ij i/iacu/ata, obliqua, Ju?icta 

 TiXidi politissima. In a very large series oi coiivergeiis before me collected 

 in many places from the Atlantic to the Pacific and as far south as Puebla, 

 in Mexico, there is not a single example in which the slightest tendency to 

 amalgamation of the post-scutellar spots to form a single star, or of the 

 confluence of the post-median spots, either transversely or longitudinally, 

 can be discovered. There may be such phenomena in nature, but I can 

 only say that I have failed to observe them, and strongly suspect that 

 those instances in which they have been announced, as in the unnamed 

 form listed by Leng, refer to some other species, for it is only after much 

 experience that the commingling of different species, so similar in their 

 markings, can be avoided. The subbasal spots are sometimes obsolete, 

 and occasionally all the spots, except the small scutellar dash, are wanting, 

 but I have only observed this in a {^^n Puebla specimens. The species 

 described by Mulsant under the name i^-7naculata is much larger than 

 cojivergejis, and is abundantly isolated and perfectly valid, by no means a 

 variety as surmised by Leng. I have a good series taken near St. Louis. 

 Jimcta is a very remarkable form, with a juxta-sutural vitta uniting the 

 transversely confluent post-median spot's with the subapical ; it is 

 apparently a species, but, if the future should decide otherwise, it will 

 prove to be a subspecies of obliqua and not of convergens. Obliqua is a 

 species quite distinct from convergens ; it is smaller, still narrower and 

 has several radical peculiarities of marking. As for politissima, it may for 

 the present be disposed of as a subspecies of obliqua^ of slightly shorter, 

 stouter form, more obsolete punctuation and more polished surface. 

 Obsoleta^ proposed by Crotch as a variety of convergens^ is to be com- 

 pletely suppressed as a manuscript name, for no description v/as given, 

 the only statement made being "punctuation of elytra entirely obsolete," 

 and this is erroneous, as no example of Hippodanda ever had the 

 punctures entirely obsolete. 



The simiata section of the genus is composed of smaller and nar- 

 rower species, on the whole, than those of the preceding, differing radically 

 in the complete and constant absence of the two post-scutellar points, and 

 in exhibiting a marked tendency to the longitudinal amalgamation of the 

 discal spots to form vittse from the humeral callus, there never being any 

 tendency to posterior elongation of the subhumeral spot in the ^-signata — 

 convergens series. There are four known species, spuria^ Crotchi., sitiuata 



