16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. loi 



species, and the rows of striate punctures on the elytra are more 

 crowded. 



M. denticollis appears to be found most abundantly in the central 

 Mississippi Valley. It occurs as far north as Iowa and Illinois and 

 is found in collections from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, 

 and south into northern Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Less com- 

 mon are specimens from Kentucky and Tennessee, and there are com- 

 paratively few specimens from West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, 

 North Carolina, and Georgia. I have found it on the edge of a thicket 

 of reeds, at Plumpoint, Md., where the beetles were not very abun- 

 dant and seemed to spend much of their time out of sight in the sand 

 around the roots of the reeds. 



Because the beetles are injurious to young corn as well as to sugar- 

 cane and other garden crops, this species has become well known in 

 economic literature as the southern corn leaf-beetle. As early as 1887 

 in a report of the United States Commission on Agriculture, Riley " 

 reported it as a pest. Webster ^ in 1900 to 1901 gave several accounts 

 of its destructiveness in Ohio to seedling corn. Tucker ^^ called at- 

 tention to a serious outbreak in Butler County, Kans., which neces- 

 sitated the replanting of "hundreds of acres of corn." Farther south 

 in Louisiana and Mississippi it has been found injuring cotton and 

 also sugarcane. An unusually full account of the immature stages 

 and life history has been given by E. O. G. Kelly ^* in connection 

 with its destructiveness to corn. 



A series of specimens sent from Mexico as injuring corn at Perjamo, 

 Guanajuato, August 30, 1909 (sent by Julio Reguelma), cannot be 

 distinguished from the North American specimens of this species. 



MYOCHROUS CYPHUS, new species 



Plate 1, Pigube 3 



From 4 to 6 mm. in length, oblong, piceous, shining with a bronzy 

 luster ; prothorax with a 3-toothed margin, a depression along the base, 

 and a median convexity, the rows of elytral punctures not so closely 

 placed as in denticollis and the scales coarser, denser, and concealing 

 more the punctation below. 



Head covered by dense scales down to antennal sockets, a more or 

 less distinct median line, the punctation dense and fine and radiating 

 from the middle in lines, a ridge on each side of occiput. Lower front 

 rather less densely and not very coarsely punctate, with a fine scale 

 from each puncture. Antennae yellowish or reddish, and of the usual 

 proportions. Prothorax not so long as wide, with a prominently 3- 



"Rept. U. S. Comm. Agr., 1887, p. 150. 



" U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Ent. Bull. 26, new ser., 1900 ; Journ. New York Ent. Soc, vol. 9, 

 pp. 128-132, 1901. 

 « U. S. Dept. Agr. Yearbook, 1905, p. 634. 

 "U. S. Dept. Agr. Dept. Bull. 221, pp. 1-11, 1915. 



