N °- 3604 GLYPTOSCELIS — BLAKE 3 



lustre, sometimes somewhat bronzy, or just shining black. And 

 all of them are pubescent, usually with coarse, white, appressed 

 hairs, sometimes intermixed with yellowish or brown hairs. Rarely 

 is the pubescence in the form of broader scales. There is often a 

 pattern made by the color of the brown and white pubescence, with 

 thicker patches that form spots or vittae, usually on the elytra, but 

 sometimes also on the pronotum. The arrangement of the hairs 

 on the pronotum is significant. In the Mexican and South American 

 species there is usually a bare median line that is impunctate down 

 the pronotum and the hairs spread out from this on each side horizon- 

 tally. In the more northern species the hairs in the median part of 

 the pronotum are vertically arranged. In G. squamidata the pubes- 

 cence on the pronotum is without any perceptible pattern, being 

 very dense and the hairs broad and scalelike. In only one species 

 are the hairs outstandingly erect over the upper surface, and this is 

 in a peculiar cylindrically shaped species that is probably wingless. 

 It is represented by only one specimen collected at Cotati, Sonoma 

 County, Calif. 



These stout robust beetles have a broad head with wide-set eyes 

 and a flat front usually with a median depressed line down from the 

 occiput, a convex prothorax with somewhat rounded or occasionally 

 nearly straight sides, a short broad scutellum, and long, convex 

 elytra. In a few species the tips of the elytra are narrowly prolonged. 

 Always the beetles are more or less coarsely and densely punctate 

 throughout. The legs are short and stout, tibiae without emargi- 

 nation but with a groove, the tarsal joints not very long, and the claw 

 joint, with one exception, toothed. Only in G. cryptica is the claw 

 simple. In the location of this claw tooth, there is considerable 

 variation. In some species the claw has a bifid appearance, the tooth 

 being near the apex; in others the tooth is short and near the base, 

 and in some there is only a very tiny median tooth. Most often there 

 is a well-developed tooth about midway up the claw, not as long as 

 the claw. 



As already stated, the aedeagus is of prime importance in separat- 

 ing the species. The shape of the tip is not only of specific value but 

 it tends to separate the species into groups. For example, in G. 

 squamidata, G. alternata, G. albida, and G. cryptica there are similarly 

 pointed apices to the aedeagus. And the Mexican species from Sinaloa 

 and Sonora, as well as G. mexicana from Oaxaca and G. prosopis from 

 Brownsville all have similarly shaped tips to the aedeagus. This does 

 not hold, however, in the case of the two South American species 

 already mentioned, G. aeneipennis and G. fascicularis. Now and 

 then there occurs a very divergently shaped aedeagus such as is found 

 in G. dohrni from Colombia, in G. gigas from Brazil, and in G. gayi from 



