2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 123 



1873, Crotch, adopting LeConte's generic name Glyptoscelis, de- 

 scribed from California three more species of this predominately West 

 Coast genus. Thus, very early in American entomological history 

 the genus Glyptoscelis was recognized by the leading coleopterists of 

 the day. Both Blaisdell and Van Dyke have added new western 

 species, and most recently N. L. K. Krauss in 1937 in the "University 

 of California Publications in Entomology" has written a short revision 

 of the North American species thereby adding three new subspecies. 

 In the East, Blatchley and Schaeffer have each described a species 

 from the middle and southern states respectively. Schaeffer's species 

 from Texas belongs to the group of Glyptoscelis found in Mexico, and 

 Blatchley's species (G. liebecki) is undoubtedly the same as one 

 described by Baly (G. albicans) in 1865. Baly also described two 

 species from Venezuela and Colombia in 1865. Jacoby in the 

 "Biologia Centrali- Americana" in 1882 described G. mexicana from 

 Mexico, and G. chontalensis from Nicaragua, and in 1897 he described 

 G. gigas from Brazil and G. paraguayensis from Paraguay. In 1900 

 he added G. dohrni from Colombia. The French entomologist 

 Lefevre added G. gayi from Chile, a species which was collected by the 

 Chilean entomologist. This represents the total of the species already 

 described except for two or three wrongly ascribed to the genus from 

 the West Indies. 



There has been gradually accumulating an extensive collection 

 of specimens of the genus in the California Academy of Sciences, 

 chiefly from the western states but with some from Sonora and 

 Sinaloa in Mexico. Along with this material, I have studied the 

 collections at the U.S. National Museum, the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology, and the University of Washington. The result 

 of this study of large series has shown that the western states and also 

 western Mexico represent the center of the greatest number of species 

 of the genus, and furthermore it shows that there is a considerable 

 number that have not been recognized or have been confused with 

 already described species. No one up to now apparently has studied 

 the aedeagi, which show clear differences between very similar species. 

 For instance, in the two species G. aeneipennis Baly and G. fascicularis 

 Baly from Colombia and Venezuela, the differences in the beetles 

 are so slight that Jacoby has united them under one name. But the 

 aedeagi are entirely different, although even I, who know this, cannot 

 tell with a certainty by their outward appearance which is which. 

 In general, Glyptoscelis is a very homogeneous genus, many species 

 looking more or less alike and at first glance not readily distinguishable. 



All the species of Glyptoscelis are comparatively large, measuring 

 from 5 to 14 mm. in length. In color they are deep reddish brown 

 or piceous, sometimes with a coppery or distinctly aeneous green 



