398 AMERICAN PACHYBRACHYS (cOLEOPTERA) 



examples the middle exterior spot is often absent, and the corresponding inner 

 spot nearly so; the latter is almost invariably connected with the one behind 

 it, which very often joins the outer posterior spot. 



Pygidium sometimes entirely black but usually with the typical yellow 

 apical spots. Body beneath black, the apex and sometimes side margins of 

 venter pale. Legs yellow with dark femoral and tibial spots of variable extent. 



Length 2.4 to 3.3 mm.; width 1.3 to 1.7 mm. 



Distribution.— California: "Northern Cahfornia," type; San Diego, May 1; 

 San Bernardino Mountains, July 12; Pasadena, June 12; Pomona, April 4 to 30; 

 "So. Cal. Smith's Springs, 3,300 ft., Apr. 19" (Snow CoU.); Fredalba, July 29 

 (Pilate); Kaweah and vicinity, April and May (Hopping in various Colls.); 

 Bishop, June, and Mill Valley, June (Fenyes) ; LakeTahoe, July 17 to21 ; Sonoma 

 Co. (Van Dyke) ; San Jose,"on willows" (Mrs. A. S. Bush in Nat. Mus. Coll.) ; Los 

 Angeles Co., San Joaquin Co., and Tehama Co. (Coquillett in Nat. ]\Ius. Coll.); 

 Placer Co. and Siskiyou Co. (Koebele in Nat. Mus. Coll.); Yreka (Leng Coll.); 

 Marin Co. and Lake Co. (Leng Coll.); Blair's Ranch, Humboldt Co. (H. S. 

 Barber) ; Sisson (Hubbard & Schwarz) ; Shasta Springs, July (Fenyes) ; Cole, 

 July (Fenyes); Dunsmuir (Wickham). Oregon: Portland (Wickham); Hunt- 

 ington (Leng Coll.); "Or" (Koebele). Washington: Easton (Koebele — Nat. 

 Mus. Coll.) ; Olympia (Liebeck Coll.) ; Snokomish (Nat. Mus.) . British Colum- 

 bia: Emerald Lake, June (Fenyes); Vernon (Wickham Coll.); Kaslo, June to 

 Aug. (Caudell and Currie— Nat. Mus. Coll.). Idaho: Pocatello (Wickham). 

 Nevada: Elko; Reno (Wickham). Utah: City Canon, June 28; Stockton, June 

 11 (Knaus); Provo (Wickham); American Fork Canon, June; Wahsatch, June 

 27 (Hubbard & Schwarz). Arizona: Oak Creek Canon, 6,000 ft., Aug. (Snow.) . 

 Colorado: Garland, June 29, and Alamosa, July 3 (Hubbard & Schwarz.). 



A widely dispersed and very common species in the Pacific 

 Region, and variable in a greater or less degree in almost all its 

 characters. For that reason it can not be described very satis- 

 factorily, nor can hard and fast lines be drawn between it and its 

 nearer allies signatifrons, peccans and signatus, all of which may be 

 reached with little or no break along one or another line of varia- 

 tion. I do not now venture to assert that these supposed species 

 constitute a single one; it may be so, but in any case it will be 

 well for the present to use these names for certain typical forms, 

 whether they be specific or varietal. The relations of these other 

 forms to melanostictus is made sufficiently clear by the tabular 

 characters combined with the short comparative descriptions 

 which follow. 

 81. Pachybrachys peccans Suffrian 



Diagnostic characters nearly as in mdanostictus. As indicated in the table, 

 the eyes are slightly less distant in this species, being separated in (he male 

 from one and three-fourths to twi(;e the length of the basal joint of the anten- 

 nae, while the front claws of the male are as a rule more distinctly enlarged. 



