Horn.] OO [Feb. 21, 



REVISION OF THE SPECIES OF SEVERAL GENERA OF 

 MELOID.E OF THE UNITED STATES. 



By George H. Horn, M. D. 



Bead before the American Philosophical Society, February 21, 1873.) 



The genera reviewed in the following pages are Macro-basis, Epicauta, 

 Cantharis and Pomphopoea, which comprise the large majority of the 

 species of Meloidse in our fauna. The other genera have cot been noticed 

 on account of either of the fewness of the species contained in them, or 

 from the lack of sufficient material to determine correctly the relation- 

 ship of the species. In the latter case may be cited, Meloe and Nemog- 

 natha, especially the former, of which probably, the majority of the 

 species have been described from unique specimens. The attention of 

 all collectors is called especially to the species of Meloe, and at the same 

 time an accurate determination of the sexes is more than all desirable. 

 The species of Pyrota are also well worthy of attention, and it is prob- 

 able that some of them, especially those in the banded group, will have 

 to be suppressed when further material shall have been collected. 



Macrobasis. Lee. 

 Macrobasis, Lee. Class. Col. N. A. p. 2T2 ; Apterospasta. ibid. 



The genus Macrobasis, with which I am compelled to unite Aptero- 

 spasta, differs from Epicauta by characters of comparatively trifling 

 moment. The first joint of the antennae of the male is elongate, in a 

 part of the species very greatly, and in an equal number, moderately 

 so. In the former case the first joint frequently equals twice the 

 length of the two following together, and in the latter is about equal to 

 them. The second joint of the antennae of the male is always more than 

 half the length of the third, and sometimes greatly longer than that 

 joint. From the variability of the antennae it may be seen, that there is 

 very great difficulty in separating the genus from Epicauta, and it is very 

 doubtful if the advancement of science would be at all retarded by their 

 union. Apterospasta is certainly not distinct, the presence or absence of 

 wings being rather specific than generic, and the type of the genus is 

 moreover strongly winged. The species of Macrobasis may be separated 

 by their sexual characters and the scheme thus produced contains at the 

 head those species the most remote by their antennal characters from 

 Epicauta, and thence gradually approaching that genus. 



A. First joint of antennae male very elongate, usually more or less 

 dilated at tip and contorted, and always longer than the two following 

 joints together. 



