LEXIPHANES NORTH OF MEXICO — BALSBAUGH 657 



generous offer of material, information, and assistance, I am very 

 grateful to the following indi\dduals and institutions: John C. Pallister, 

 American Mus. of Nat. Hist.; James A. G. Rehn, Acad, of Nat. Sci. 

 of Philadelphia ; J. L. Gressitt and Setsuko Nakata, Bernice P. Bishop 

 Mus., Honolulu, Hawaii; J. Balfour-Browne, British Mus. (Nat. Hist.) ; 

 the late C. A. Frost, Framingham, Mass.; Hugh B. Leech, California 

 Acad, of Sci.; George Wallace, Carnegie Mus.; Francisco Pacheco, 

 Colegio de Post-Graduados, Chapingo, Mex. ; Henry Dietrich, Cornell 

 Univ. ; W. J. Brown and Henry F. Howden, Canada Nat. Collection, 

 Canada Dept. of Agric. ; Milton W. Sanderson, Illinois Nat. Hist. Surv.; 

 Fritz Hieke, Humboldt Universitat, Berlin; Jean L. Laffoon, Iowa 

 State Univ. ; J. O. Hiising, Martin Luther Universitat, Halle- Witten- 

 berg, East Germany; P. J. Darlington, Jr., Mus. of Compar. Zool.; 

 Roland L. Fischer, Michigan State Univ. ; John A. WUcox, New York 

 State Mus.; J. N. KnuU and C. A. Triplehorn, Ohio State Univ.; 

 G. B. Sleesman, Pennsylvania Dept. of Agric; G. B. Wiggins, Royal 

 Ontario Mus. of Zool. and Palaeontol.; J. B. Schmitt, Rutgers Univ.; 

 H. C. Severin, South Dakota State Coll.; S. L. Tuxen, Universitetets 

 Zoologiske Mus., Copenhagen, Denmark; G. E. Ball, Univ. of Alberta; 

 Floyd G. Werner, Univ. of Arizona; Jerry A. Powell, Univ. of Calif ornia, 

 Berkely, Calif.; A. T. McClay, Univ. of California, Davis, Calif.; 

 W. F. Barr, Univ. of Idaho; George W. Byers, Univ. of Kansas; 

 Marion E. Smith, Univ. of Massachusetts; Wilbur R. Enns, Univ. of 

 Missouri; Doris H. Blake and D. M. Weisman, United States Nat. 

 Mus.; and Maurice T. James, Washington State Univ. 



The author owes a special debt of gratitude to W. Wayne Boyle, 

 Pennsylvania State Univ., for his guidance while these studies were 

 being undertaken, and to Kirby L. Hays, Auburn Univ., for reading 

 and criticizing the manuscript. To T. L. Guyton, retired, Pennsyl- 

 vania Dept. of Agric, goes my warmest appreciation for encouragement 

 to begin graduate studies. 



Systematic Treatment 



North American Lexiphanes display several colors and considerable 

 variability : piceous, brownish black, blue green, dark bronzed green, 

 and yellowish red. Their general shape can best be described as being 

 keglike; the body length averaged 1.4 times the width. The compact 

 form, along with its colors and patterns, usually permits easy recog- 

 nition of these beetles without close scrutiny of diagnostic characters. 



The head is hypognathous, nearly circular, and fits tightly in the 

 prothorax. From directly above, the head is most often invisible. 

 The eyes are strongly emarginate and those of the male more closely 

 contiguous than those of the female. The subserrate, 11-segmented 

 antennae arise in the emargination of the eyes and extend the length 



