AMERICAN COLEOPTERA. 81 



Note on the genus PL.EOCOIMEA Lee. 

 BY JOHN L. LECONTE, M. D. 



Some years ago I received from my excellent and liberal friend, 

 Mr. Andrew Murray, of Loudon, a female of this singular genus. I 

 was unwilling at the time to describe it, as both antennae were gone, 

 and the specimen otherwise much mutilated. I saw a similar one in 

 the collection of Dr. Candeze, at Liege, and recently Mr. Behrens, of 

 San Francisco, has loaned me a more perfect individual, belonging to 

 a different species. 



The genus was founded by me * upon a mutilated specimen, which, 

 however, retained enough of the antennae to show that they were 11- 

 jointed, with the 6th joint wider than preceding, the 7th still wider, 

 and the 8 — 11 forming an elongate lamellate club. 



Just before leaving the country, in 1857, on a long journey, I re- 

 ceived perfect specimens of what seemed, on hasty examination, to be 

 the same species, and I had barely time to pen a note to be appended 

 to the Pacific K. R. Report, which was printed during my absence ; 

 calling attention, however, to the important difference in the antennae, 

 which in these new specimens, had the 4th joint prolonged inwards, 

 joints 5 — 11 forming a 7-leaved club, f I also indicated the differen- 

 ces in the prothorax, finely and sparsely punctured in the 4-leaved 

 specimen, quite densely punctured in the two with seven leaves. 



No other specimens in the mean while occurred, and I was still un- 

 willing in my classification of Coleoptera.| to indicate these two forms 

 as distinct species. The condition of the type such as to render its 

 study very unsatisfactory, and the observations were therefore made 

 upon the perfect individuals of the second species. 



In 1870, Dr. M. Schaufuss, (Nunquam otiosus, vol. ii.) after reci- 

 ting the same history 1 have given above, describes at length a form 

 with 7-leaved antennal club. The name under which he makes it 

 known is inadmissible, and it must therefore be regarded as unpub- 



« Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila., 1856, 24. 



t Expl. and Surveys U. S. P. R. R., 47th Parallel, insects, p. 40, j>l. 1, f. 13, a. 

 % May, 1861, p. 128; by a typographical or clerical error the last '5 or G' joints 

 of the autennse are said to be laiuellated, it should be '4 or 7'. 



TRANS. AMER. ENT. SOC. (11) SEPTEMBER, 1874. 



