336 BULLETIN 63, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Diagnostic characters. — It would appear from a careful study of 

 LeConte's description that the type (male) had the sides of the 

 pronotum rounded nearer to the base than in the majority of the 

 specimens before me, in consequence there is a less degree of con- 

 striction and the angles smaller ; such is the case in a specimen which 

 has been compared with the type b}'^ Professor Fall, and in his col- 

 lection, and which I take to be quite typical. The example was col- 

 lected in the San Bernardino Mountains. 



In all of the specimens making up a small series taken at Fort 

 Tejon by Fuchs and Hopping, the sides of the pronotum are more 

 strongly constricted, straight, and parallel in about the basal eighth; 

 the angles are therefore larger and rectangular, but some of the 

 specimens approach Professor Fall's specimen, so that this character 

 is simply a variation and of no specific value. 



The Fort Tejon specimens no doubt belong to the form described 

 by LeConte as veseyi, the type of which is a large male and remark- 

 able for the attempt at strife of large punctures near the middle of 

 the elytra (LeConte). Mr. Blanchard writes me that veseyi is so 

 near the type of consohrina that he is surprised that LeConte should 

 have given it a name; it is no doubt a heterotype and therefore a 

 true synonym of consohrina. In veseyi the pronotum is more strongly 

 constricted and the basal angles larger and subrectangular; therefore 

 it is related to the specimens above mentioned from Fort Tejon. 



An interesting specimen from Lower California was referred to 

 consohrina by Doctor Horn ; " it was destroyed with the Academy in 

 the recent disaster before I had an opportunity to study it. 



It is very difficult oftentimes to satisfactorily separate this species 

 from some forms of par oicollis ; as a rule in consohrina the pronotum 

 is more strongly and evenly convex from side to side, and not at 

 all impressed or flattened within the lateral margins; in jMrvicollii^. 

 when the pronotal surface is evenly arcuate from side to side, it 

 generally arises more suddenly and strongly from the margins. 



In consohrina the humeri are more rounded and the superior 

 epipleural margin not visible from above ; the elytral sculpturing 

 is also coarser and tuberculate. These characters are valuable Avhen 

 the pronotal ones are weak or exhibit an approach to parmcollis., as 

 they do sometimes. The heterotypes of both species are at times no 

 doubt amphitypical. 



In consohrina the marginal bead is not so reliable a character as in 

 tenehrosa^ inculta, and snowii, for instance; the species is always 

 more robust. 



It is often necessary to examine the genital segment of the female 

 to more satisfactorily place some j^articular specimen, and males 

 from the same region can be placed with the females. 



" Proc. California Acad. Sciences, 2d ser., IV, Pt. 1, p. 350, 



