438 AMERICAN PACHYBRACHYS (cOLEOPTERA) 



angles; punctuation close, only a little uneven, punctures somewhat less close 

 along the side margins when the latter are yellow, scarcely at aU so when the 

 margins are black; yellow markings small, variable in number from many to 

 none. 



Elytra confusedly punctured in a broad baso-sutural triangle, punctures at 

 sides and rear arranged in more or less impressed sinuous hues, the submarginal 

 stria interrupted behind the humerus; marginal interspace (cf) punctured near 

 the base, narrow posteriorly; in the female with more numerous punctures 

 which may be confused with those of the stria; shield varying from rather 

 large, yeUow, and distinct, to small and inconspicuous; yellow markings small, 

 many to few, and occupying the usual spaces between the standard black spots, 

 which are here broadly suffused or confluent. 



Pygidium and body beneath black, the former rarely with two small apical 

 yellow spots. Femora black and yellow, tibiae blackish. 



Length 2.5 to 3.9 mm.; width 1.35 to 2.15 mm. 



Distribution. — California: Mokelumne Hill (Blaisdell), male type; Siskiyou 

 Co., June 2; Alameda Co., May 30, and Eldorado Co. (Nunenmacher); Lake 

 Tahoe, July 12 to 17 (Hubbard & Schwarz and my own colls.); Tahoe City, 

 Aug. (Van Dyke); Bartlett Springs, one female, identity doubtful (Fenyes); 

 Santa Cruz Mountains (Horn Coll.); San Diego, May 27 (var. gagatcs). 

 Arizona: Pinal Mountains (Wickham); Ash Fork, June 18 (Barber & Schwarz). 



Var. gagates new variety 



This name is proposed for a series from San Diego, Cahfornia, seemingly 

 specifically identical with the type form, but so far as seen, invariably entirely 

 black. One female of the Alameda Co. examples above recorded is entirely 

 black and others are very nearly so; these connect the San Diego specimens 

 perfectly with the more sparsely mottled ones of the typical form, and the 

 present varietal name is therefore only a convenience for tabulating and dis- 

 tinguishing from the other black or nearly black forms of lustraris, melanostic- 

 lus and signatifrons occurring on the Pacific coast. 



Californicus may be distinguished from lustrans, which in some 

 forms it most closely resembles, by the more approximate eyes, 

 front not transversely impressed between the eyes, and by the 

 very distinctly enlarged front claws of the male. Certain speci- 

 mens of californicus, especially those from the Pinal Mountains 

 of Arizona, are closely similar to the darker forms of alticola, but 

 the latter has more widely separated eyes and may with certainty 

 be distinguished by the small front claws of the male. 



119. Pachybrachys pinguescens new species 



Closely alhed to californicus, differing only as follows: Size larger, a little 

 stouter, prothorax similarly strongly rounded in the male, and distinctly more 

 inflated in the female than in californicus, widest nearly at the middle in the 

 female type; front less evidently impressed along the median line; antennae a 

 little more slender, the tenth joint about four times as long as wide in the 



