366 PROCEEDESTGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 117 



patric and, in cases of doubt, there are reliable supplementary char- 

 acters which may be consulted. Nonrelative definitive characters are 

 not numerous among the species and mainly involve the form of the 

 prosternum, the development of the head, especially the manner in 

 which the genae are raised above the antennal insertions, and of 

 course, the male genitalia. Sexual dimorphism is known only in the 

 North American D. maculata. 



This genus contains only 12 known species but has an extraordi- 

 narily wide distribution. One or more species are found throughout 

 Europe, temperate Asia, China, Japan, Ceylon, North America, the 

 West Indies, Central America, and northern South America. As yet, 

 none are known from either Africa or Australia. They are all re- 

 markably alike in general habitus. All are of at least moderate size, 

 and all except D. coccinea Laporte are yellowish to reddish in elytral 

 ground color with distinct patterns of black bands and blotches. The 

 entire dorsal surface of D. coccinea (from French Guiana and Brazil) 

 is uniformly light brown in color. 



Geoffroy (1762) presented a very clear and adequate diagnosis of 

 the genus Diaperis, accompanied by an illustration unquestionably 

 representing D. boleti. Since, however, he did not use binomials, the 

 name Diaperis must be dated from the next earliest worker, Miiller 

 (1764), who validated the name and later (1776, p. 74) included under 

 it Chrysomela boleti Linnaeus, which becomes the monobasic type of 

 the genus. 



Key to North American Species of Diaperis 



1. Elytral pattern consisting of 2 continuous, transverse black bands (pi. 1, 



fig. 5) ; confined to the southwestern United States and Lower Califor- 

 nia rufipes Horn 



Elytral pattern consisting of at most 1 continuous, transverse black band lo- 

 cated on posterior half of elytra, or entirely lacking transverse bands ... 2 



2. Elytral pattern consisting of a continuous transverse black band on posterior 



half of elytra and a transverse series of 5 black spots across basal half, the 



middle one involving both elytra (pi. 1, fig. 4) nigronotata Pic 



Elytral pattern with large black blotches on posterior half of each elytron 

 which may or may not fuse to form a continuous transverse band; at most, 

 2 black spots on basal half of each elytron 3 



3. Male with apical pronotal margin more or less bituberculate medially and 



with 2 small tubercles on clypeus; these structures unmodified in female. 

 Ventral surface shining black; head usually bicolored, dark anteriorly, red 

 behind eyes and ventrally. Abundant and widely distributed east of the 



Mississippi River maculata Oliver 



Apical pronotal margin and clypeus unmodified in either sex; ventral surface 

 reddish brown; head uniformly reddish. Known only from four counties 

 in Central California californica Blaisdell 



