42 PEOCEEDINGS OP THE NATIOlSrAL MUSEUM vol.75 



than an isolated phylogenetic development. The large triangular 

 posterior prolongations of the epicranium, the strongly chitinized 

 frontal margin and median carina of the head capsule, the soft 

 bulging body with minute setae, and the thinly chitinized flexible 

 pygidial shield are features often found in mining larvae, for in- 

 stance among the Halticinae in Diholia, Mantura^ Argopistes^ and 

 Sphaeroderjna. 



Among the larvae of the common Galerucinae type the larvae of 

 Trirhahda and Galeruca form well-defined genera, the former char- 

 acterized particularly by having the abdominal spiracles lodged in 

 large posterior parascutal sclerites and the latter characterized by the 

 conical sclerites from which well developed setae radiate in all direc- 

 tions. On the contrary, the larva of Monoxia pujwticoUis- is very 

 similar to the larva of Galerucella notata^ and the larva of Lochviaea 

 cafveae is decidedly closer to the Galerucella species notata and 

 mhumi than either of these are to such Galerucella species as luteola 

 4ind riymphaeas. 



Judged from the larvae the genus Galerucella includes five groups 

 of species, all five groups characterized in the key (p. 8), namely, A, 

 the nymfhaeae group; B, the luteola group; C, the viburni group; 

 D, the decora-camcoUis group, and E, the notata group. The 

 nytJipha£ae group and the luteola group are very distinct, mutually 

 entirely different, but both in different ways sharply separated from 

 the following groups, which are closely related to each other. In the 

 mbumi group the tergal sclerites are all present and all free, and there 

 are two prescutal, two scuto-scutellar, and two parascutal sclerites on 

 each side. In contrast to this gi-oup the decora-cavicollis group is 

 characterized by a fusion of the interior and exterior scuto-scutellar 

 sclerite, and thus the species of the notata group possess two pre- 

 scutal, only one compound scuto-scutellar, and two parascutal scler- 

 ites on each side. In the notata group the difference from the vihurrd 

 group is expressed by the complete absence of the anterior parascutal 

 sclerite, and thus the species of the notata group possess two pre- 

 scutal, two scuto-scutellar, but only one parascutal sclerite on each 

 side. 



*r Monoxia functicollis has the same arrangement of the sclerites as 

 the notata group and also the other features, characteristic of this 

 group, identically developed ; it is therefore remarkable that the larva 

 pupates in a simple earthen cell in the ground while the larvae of 

 notata and crihrata construct an open reticulate cocoon, attached to a 

 leaf of the food plant; this biological circumstance, and the syste- 

 matic differences between the imagines, seem consequently to prove 

 a less intimate affinity between the species than the structural details 

 of the larvae suggest. 



