164 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.86 



PHTLLOPHAGA (PHYTALUS) OBSOLETA VANALLERl (Schaeffcr) 



Plate 9, FiorRE Id; Plate 10, Fig^tee 7a-7c 



Phytalus obsolctus Blanchabd, Catalogue de la collection entomologique, vol. 



1, p. 131, 1850. 

 Phytalus vanalleri Schaeffer, Bull. Brooklyn Ent. Soc, vol. 22, p. 215, 1927. 



Mah. — Elongate, subparallel, head and thorax rufous, otherwise 

 testaceous to rufotestaceous, thorax and elytra glabrous, shining. 

 Front of head closely, more or less confluently punctured, with long, 

 erect, testaceous hair; a narrow area behind clypeal suture smooth 

 and impunctate ; clypeal suture not impressed ; clypeus broad, faintly 

 emarginate at middle of the subtruncate apex, the latter strongly 

 reflexed, disk coarsely and sparsely punctured; antennal club usually 

 longer than the rest of the antennae. Thoracic angles obtuse but well 

 defined, base margined except at the middle, sides subangulate, sub- 

 crenulate; disk moderately, densely, and regularly umbilicate-punctate, 

 with a small, irregular, median impunctate area; a few of the punc- 

 tures with a minute testaceous hair. Elytra densely rugose-punctate, 

 with a few hairs near apex. Pygidium very convex, polished, sparsely 

 punctured, with suberect hairs ; disk narrowly impressed before apex, 

 the latter broadly rounded and ciliate. Abdomen shallowly im- 

 pressed at middle, the concavity densely and finely setigerously punc- 

 tate, the hair long and fine: segment 5 with a broad transverse 

 carina near apical margin widely interrupted at middle, the carina 

 densely pilose; segment 5 including the lobe as long as segments 3 

 and 4 combined; sides of abdomen sparsely punctured. Posterior 

 spurs long, free. 



Female. — Median impunctate area of thorax broader, with the 

 punctures more distinct, middle of abdomen very slightly canalicu- 

 late, regularly and sparsely punctured, almost glabrous and highly 

 polished; segment 5 more densely punctured at the slightly raised 

 apical margin; segment 6 slightly convex, coarsely and sparsely 

 punctured; antennal club equal to segments ^7 combined; otherwise 

 similar to male. 



Length, 16-17 mm. Width, 7.-5-8 mm. 



Remarks- — This form is rather uncommon in the Southeast, but 

 specimens have been seen from Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana. It 

 is easily separated from all others of our fauna by the sexual charac- 

 ters, and in these it is similar to P. ohsohta Blanchard, which is a 

 common species in Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua ; the two are 

 very close, and P. vanalleri Schaeffer is probably best regarded at 

 present as a northern subspecies having a longer antennal club (often 

 two-fifths longer than the funicle), more crenate lateral thoracic 

 margins, less elevated pectinate teeth on the lobe of the fifth abdominal 



