244 BULLETIN 63, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Ventrolateral surfaces. — Body not very stout, moderately convex 

 and \&cy slightly swollen, broadly and feebly concave before the 

 apices; surface smooth and sparsely punctate in apical two-thirds, 

 setose, seta? fine and small; submarginal groove small and distinct 

 between external margin of the dorsal plate and the thin external 

 border of the lateral plate, terminating at the external angle of the 

 fossa. Internal margins of the valves contiguous in basal fourth. 

 Genital fissure in middle two-fourths and fusiform, closed in basal 

 half by the inferior pudendal membrane. 



//r/Z>'/^rt^.— California (Fort Tejon, April 10-21, Fuchs and Hop- 

 ping; Los Angeles County, Dr. E. C. Van Dyke; Fairmount, April 

 23, Fuchs and Hopping; Xorwalk, December 25, Antelope Valley, 

 August 5, H. C. Fall; Oak Creek, Kern County; Tehachapi Valley, 

 June 15). 



Ninnber of specimens studied, CO. 



Types in my own collection (males and females). 



T yye-locaVity . — Fairmount, Los Angeles County, California. Col- 

 lectors, Fuchs and Hopping. 



Salient tyi')e-cJiaractcTS. — Somewhat robust and elongate, integu- 

 ments firm, smooth and polished. Pronotum scarcely subquadrate, 

 sides broadly arcuate in anterior two-thirds, thence quite straight 

 and converging to base; apical angles acuminate and dentiform, 

 slightly everted; basal angles obtuse and distinct; disc very sparsely 

 and minutely punctulate. Elytra with distant and distinct unim- 

 pressed stria^ of rather small punctures, intervals flat with a series 

 of very minute and distantly spaced punctules. 



Diagnost'te c/tairtcfer,^. — In collections (Jisfa)h<i is usually associated 

 with gracilis and is to be differentiated like that species. It is more 

 robust than firarilis: the intense black and firm body wall, highly 

 polished and shining surface are quite characteristic. Elytral stria? 

 are more distinct than in gracilis and the punctuation is more dis- 

 tinctly defined. 



A very interesting fact is that the most heterotypical form — a 

 large robust example with pronotal disc subalutaceous, is amphi- 

 typical of hispilahris forma Icpins, but the punctuation is perfectly 

 simple and typical of the present race; the other heterotypes of the 

 series resemble gracilis in form, but the sculpturing still remains char- 

 acteristic of distant. 



The interesting series at hand leads me to the following s])ecula- 

 tion: It appears that distans is the smooth modification of hiKpilah)!^ 

 forma Icevis^ the latter being more northern and the former more 

 southern in habitat, distans passing into the typical form of gracilis, 

 from which it can not be sharply defined; in fact it iw^y be the trans- 

 itional form uniting gracilis and hispilahris — if there is a break in 



