294 H. C. FALL. 



two forms were not only distinct, but that neither one of them was 

 really stycjmi. This conclusion prompted an attempt at further 

 analysis of the stygica complex, and as a result of my study I shall 

 in the following pages define five species from the material at hand. 

 Each of these is represented by a fairly good series: but after set 

 ting these aside there still remain sundry individuals which indicate 

 that the possibilities have not yet been exhausted. The problem is 

 really a very diflicult one, and I am by no means certain that the 

 results thus far reached may not be modified by fui'ther experience. 



There is yet no good reason to doubt the correctness of Horn's 

 course in uniting dolosa Lee. and smaragdhia Lee. with dygica. 

 These forms dififer very little except in color, varying from black in 

 Washington and Oregon, through dark blue (Northern California) 

 to a more or less brilliant green in the southern Sierras of Califor- 

 nia. The true stygica, as represented in Southern California by the 

 form smaragdina, appears to be confined to the more elevated re- 

 gions, being not rare at altitudes of 5000 to 7000 feet. The form 

 to which I have given the name piirpuraseens is purplish or violet- 

 black, and with rather more slender thorax and antennse. It in 

 habits the valleys from Kern to San Diego Counties. Chloris is 

 distinguished by its comparatively slender antennse and by the pu 

 bescence being whitish instead of blackish as in all others of the 

 stygica group. It is found in Kern and Tulare Counties, "always 

 at about 1000 feet elevation " (Hopping). Nigripilis occurs in the 

 same region, but at decidedly greater altitudes (2500-5000 feet) as 

 I am told by Mr. Hopping. It is unquestionably a good spe'cies, 

 differing conspicuously by the abundant pubescence of the upper 

 surfiice. Stolida is a stouter black or greenish black form inhabit- 

 ing the region about San Francisco; it is separable from the others 

 by the form of the head, this being gradually wider behind instead 

 of parallel. 



In the case of sphcericollis it is quite as difficult to draw any very 

 satisfactory lines of division. Typical sphcericollis inhabits the 

 plains east of the Rocky Mountains from Dakota to New Mexico. 

 It is greenish bronze in color and with a slightly transverse, very 

 convex (subglobose) thorax. Specimens from the mountains of 

 Colorado (Estes Park) are quite true to type, though blue in color; 

 others from Eastern Wasiiington (Spokane and Pullman), and 

 Eastern California (Owen's Valley), the former green, the latter 

 blue, are less shining and have a somewhat le.ss convex thorax, 



