November, 1844.] 139 



which are acute, posterior angles rounded ; a very faint, almost invisible 

 medial line : scutel almost triangular, rounded at tip, impunctured, glossy, 

 and somewhat concave in the middle : elytra obtuse punctate-striate, punc- 

 tures large ; lateral margins, behind the middle, slightly dilated : pygidium 

 minutely and densely punctured and wrinkled : beneath and feet lighter 

 colored than above, the latter formed altogether as in cuniculus: pectus 

 sparsely and profoundly punctured. Resembles much in its form Geotrupes 

 cuniculus, Fabr., but it differs from that species in being destitute of the 

 small indentation and mucro on the middle of the anterior margin of the 

 thorax, in having the thorax less punctured, in the scutellum being longer, 

 narrower and impunctured, and in being considerably less pilose beneath. 



Scaraboeus splendidus. " Mutic, green, shining, elytra striate." Fabr. 

 Syst. Eleuth i. p. 26. No. 15. 



Var. Cyaneous ; feet dark violaceous. 



Geotrupes miarophagus, Say. Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. iii. 211. Melsh. 

 Catal. No. 16. This species is more robust than either splendidus, Fabr., 

 or excrement/', Say. It is generally deep black, with but a very slight tinge 

 of blue ; the medial thoracic groove is wider and more strongly defined than 

 in splendidus and excrementi, in the latter it is sometimes wanting. In 

 blackburnii the elytral striae are almost impunctured, but in miarophagus 

 they are profound and crenate, more strongly and entirely than in splendidus 

 or excrementi. 



Melolontha punctata. Testaceous, elytra with three distant fuscous punctures. 

 Fabr. Syst. Eleuth. ii. 166, No. 28. 



Var. Immaculate. — Rare. 



Anctlontcha, Dejean. 



A. pruinosa. Fuscous; head and thorax strongly punctured, glabrous; elytra 

 pruinose. — 8 1. long, 5 1. wide. Alabama. 



Short, wide; head blackish, glabrous, confluently rugosely punctured, with 

 the biarcuated transverse line distinct ; clypeus transverse, punctured as the head, 

 with the edge reflexed and emarginate at apex : antenna; ten-jointed, rufo-piceous, 

 clava ochraceous : palpi color of the antennas, with the last joint of the maxillary 

 sublanceolate: thorax short, transverse, glabrous, color of the head, confluently 

 punctured, punctures large, interspersed with shining rugs; anterior edge slightly 

 emarginate ; base feebly bisinuate ; sides dilated in the middle, the edges dis- 

 tinctly denticulate and fringed with very few hairs; angles subacute: scutellum 

 obtuse-triangular, glabrous, piceous, coarsely and profoundly punctured : elytra 

 more than three times longer than the thorax, conjointly regularly rounded at 

 apex ; densely and very finely transversely wrinkled, dull chestnut, whitish-blue 

 sericeous when viewed from before ; sutural and marginal lines perceptible, the 

 two intermediate ones obsolete : pygidium chestnut-red, rugosely punctured, 

 glabrous : feet and venter similarly colored, the latter subglabrous, the former 

 with the tibia? and tarsi piceous : pectus clothed with short, ochraceous, prostrate 

 hairs. 



