Materials, Their Taxonomy and Natural History 41 



other species, except that in this species the central portion of each stripe is 

 wanting and only the punctate margins thereof are pigmented. Even in this 

 there is considerable variability; examples are not uncommon in which the 

 pigment is almost entirely lacking, giving an appearance much like L. signa- 

 ticoUis Stal var. nigropunctata Sturm. Color-patterns of head and pronotum 

 precisely like L. diversa in pattern, fusions, and variations. Antennae black; 

 last five joints as broad as long, terminal joint conical. Below: Shiny black; 

 under wings, pale blackish brown, densest at base and along the costal edge. The 

 full extent of coloration is not attained until 3 to 5 days after emergence. 



Size: Male 7 to 14 mm. long, 5 to 7.5 mm. broad; female 7 to 18 mm. long, 

 5 to 8.25 mm. broad. 



Sexes: Female with central sclerite of last abdominal segment rounded 

 smooth ; male with the same sclerite truncate and grooved to about the middle 

 of the plate. 



Food: Solanum hertivigi Bereth., ;S^. diversifoUum Schl., and ^S^. lanceolatum 

 Cuv. 



Juvenile Stages. 



In all live material that I have seen these stages are indistinguishable from 

 the corresponding stages of L. diversa. Length of larval periods and habits 

 identical. Pupates deeper than L. diversa — i. e., 3 to 8 inches. 



Geogbaphical Distbibution. 

 (Plate 3.) 



Mexico, Guanajuato (Salle), State of Guanajuato; Morelio and Tacambaro, 

 State of Michoacan (Hoge) ; Xucumanatlan, State of Guerrero (Smith), 

 Jacoby, 1891. I have found it in the State of Guanajuato at Guanajuato, 

 Irapuato, Dolores Hidalgo, and at Morelia, Zitacuaro, Uruapan, Tinguindin, 

 State of Michoacan, 



Habitat. 



Ecologically this species presents little of interest. Its habitat for breeding 

 and hibernation is almost identical in kind and conditions with that of 

 L. diversa, excepting that it is uniformly more arid, less water present, with 

 a longer dry season, and higher soil temperature at the end of the dry seasons. 



SOTJECE OF MaTEBIAL. 



This species has not been used to any extent in experiments thus far, but 

 material has been reared and tested in the laboratory from Dolores Hidalgo in 

 Guanajuato (stock No. 1416 obtained in June 1908), Morelia (stock No. 1400 

 obtained in August 1905; No. 1401 in July 1907), and Uruapan in Michoacan 

 (stock No. 1416 obtained in June 1907; No. 1417 in June 1908), Mexico. 



LEPTINOTARSA SIGNATICOLLIS SxAi. 



Myocoryna signaticollis Stai. Of. "Vet. Ak. Forh., 1859, p. 317.5. 



Chrysomela signaticollis St§.l. Monog. Chrys. Am., 1862, p. 163. 



Leptinotarsa signaticollis St§,l. Gemminger et Harold, 1874, Catalog. 

 Coleop., t. XI, pt. 1, p. 3441; Jacoby, Biol. Centr. Am., Jan., 1883, vol. VI, 

 pt. 1, p. 232, pi. XIII, fig. 20, suppl.. May 1891, p. 253; Tower, Inv. Evol. 

 Chrys. Beetles Gen. Leptinotarsa, 1906, p. 6. Var. nigropunctata Sturm, 

 in literature; Gemminger et Harold, 1874, Catalog. Coleop. t. XI, pt. 1, 

 p. 3441, given as syn.; Jacoby, Biol. Centr. Am., 1883, vol. VI, pt. 1. 



4 



