48 AMERICAN COLEOPTERA. 



Subgenus .4MARA s. s. 



Prothorax not or scarcely perceptibly wider in front of base. 

 Prosternuni margined at tip. Apical spur of the anterior tibiiie 

 simple. Middle tibiae not dentate on the inner side in the males. 

 Hind tibiise distinctly pubescent on the inner side in the males. 



By their form the species of this subgenus bear most resemblance 

 to Celia, from which the line of separation is not clearly defined, a 

 few species of the latter having the hind tibiae very feebly pubescent 

 on the inner side in the males. The density and length of this 

 pubescence varies to some extent among the species of Amara s. s., 

 but it is, however, always distinct. From Tricena, the only other 

 subgenus, except the present and Celia, in which the prothorax is 

 not wider in front of base, it is readily distinguishable by the sim- 

 ple apical spur of the anterior tibise. With Bradytus, on the other 

 hand, which approaches it most nearly of any of the subgenera with 

 the thorax wider in front of base, it agrees in having the posterior 

 tibise pubescent on the inner side in the males, and is separable from 

 it only by the form of the thorax. In a few species, as in insignis 

 and insularis, in which the hind angles are somewhat rounded, the 

 thorax is very feebly or scarcely perceptibly narrowed at base, but 

 the narrowing is so slight that it cannot be compared with that seen 

 in any of our species of Bradytus. The two species last named 

 seem to approach that subgenus more nearly than any others in our 

 fauna, the deep puncture at the middle of the prosternuni in the 

 males recalling the punctured fovea occurring in the same situation 

 in that sex in many Bradyti. From the other three subgenera rep- 

 resented in our fauna, Leiocnemis, Leironotus and Cyrtonotus, it is 

 readily recognizable both by the form of the thorax and by the 

 pubescence of »the hind tibiae of the males, while from the two last 

 it differs, in addition to the above characters, by the prosternuni 

 margined at tip. 



The secondary sexual characters are well marked. In addition 

 to the characters above mentioned and the dilatation of the anterior 

 tarsi in the males, the number of setigerous punctures on each side 

 of the tip of the last ventral segment differs in the two sexes, there 

 being one in the males, two in tlie females of all our species. In 

 several European species, however, the number of these punctures is 

 the same in both sexes, as for instance shnUuta, in which two are 

 present, and communis, in which there is but one. The males of at 



