PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



^-' - - ■ -■^- , ■ :l ■ . ' , ' ■ -- ■ ■ , . ■ „. ;■ ■■ -■ ■■ ■ - . ■- ■ . ■ ■■ ■■---, .■■—.-..— — -...-■_, 



Vol, 89 Washington : 1940 No. 3095 



REVISION OF THE SCARABAEID BEETLES OF THE PHYL- 

 LOPHAGAN SUBGENUS LISTROCHELUS OF THE UNITED 

 STATES, WITH DISCUSSION OF RELATED SUBGENERA 



By Lawrence W. Saylor 



Listrochelus was described as a genus by Blanchard in 1850, with 

 L. laportaei (from Mexico) as the type species. In 1878 Horn pub- 

 hshed a revision of the United States species, and other than scattered 

 descriptions there has since been no further revision of the group. 

 The present paper treats 39 species and subspecies, of which 20 are 

 herein described as new; also listed are four Mexican species that have 

 not heretofore been recorded from north of the Rio Grande. The 

 material studied consisted of 1,571 specimens (1,003 males and 568 

 females) lent by aU the major private and public collections of the 

 country. All the figures were drawn by the author. 



The species considered as belonging to this group present a rather 

 varied appearance, and nearly all types of structural modifications 

 between species found in the typical portion of the genus (Phyllophaga 

 sensu stricto) occur; as yet, however, no species of Listrochelus is 

 known to me in which one of the hind tibial spurs in the male is 

 immovable or in which the middle male tarsal claws are "deformed." 



Nearly every serious student of the group has expressed at one time 

 or another the opinion that Listrochelus was not tenable as a genus and 

 either that its boundaries be modified or else that it be suppressed 

 entirely. With more than twice the number of species known to 

 previous workers before me, I am unable to find characters that will 

 sustain Listrochelus as a valid genus. True, there are a certain num- 



219855—40 1 59 



