NORTH AMERICAN COLEOPTERA. 
277 
The species of .4GRIL.ITS of Boreal America. 
- BY GEORGE H. HORN, M.D. 
The first attempt at a comparative study of our species was made 
by Dr. LeConte in his “Revision of the Buprestidie of the United 
States (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. xi, 1859),” in which thirty-two 
species wei’e recognized and eight previously described enumerated 
as unknown. In this essay we find an important use of the form of 
the claws as the basis of a primary division of the genus in groups. 
Singularly the study of the claws was carried no further, owing 
probably to the small material which furnished the basis of the 
work. It is also to be regretted that but little attention was paid to 
the sexual characters, and, as if by accident, only an occasional 
allusion is made to the form of the prosternal lobe. Of the thirty- 
two species described, twelve were represented by single examples, 
and of the remaining twenty nearly half were represented by not 
more than two. While this condition rendered the study at the time 
easy and satisfactory, the further accumulation of material makes it 
absolutely necessary to refer to the types for determination. 
In 1873 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil.), Mr. G. R. Crotch attempted 
a brief review of our species, which is notable for the insufficiency 
of his comments in one portion of the paper and the numerous inac- 
curacies throughout, especially in the analytical table. The value 
of the Carina of the pygidium was first recognized in his paper, and 
some attempt made to use the sexual characters as a means of sepa- 
rating the species. 
The species of the regions to the south of our limits have been 
studied b}^ Mr. Waterhuuse (Biol. Cent. Amer. vol. ii, pt. 1 ) with 
fairly good results, but the species of that region are so entirely 
different from our own in facies and depend for their separation on 
characters not applicable in our fiuina, that his work has been of no 
assistance in the preparation of this. In this essay Mr. Watei-house 
has separated one of our species (pulchellus), which has an equivalent 
in Mexico, from Ar/rilas under the name Engyaulus, but for reasons 
which will be found under our species, the genus is not considered 
well founded. 
