NEOBROTICA AND RELATED GENERA — BLAKE 269 



elytral pattern in many species is similar and consists of a dark spot 

 more or less lengthened over the humerus; a dark area about the 

 scutellum extending along the suture a little way and often connecting 

 with a transverse median spot or circle of spots, and these dark 

 markings may connect with the lateral dark mark from the humerus; 

 after the middle there is often a lunate mark which may be separated 

 into two spots near the apex. There is a group of species with short 

 vittate markings along the side, down the middle of the elytra and 

 along the suture. There are many variations in this basic pattern. 

 A few species are entirely pale without any markings. One group of 

 rather large pale species has elytral spots varying from two to twelve in 

 number. Another gi'oup of pale species with distinct costae often has 

 numerous small spots, usually placed in the typical pattern. The 

 body beneath is usually pale with the breast often dark. Neobrotica 

 variabilis is typical of the genus in its markings. 



In the Bowditch collection of Neobrotica at the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology are a number of beetles to which Bowditch has attached 

 manuscript names as new species of Neobrotica, evidently planning to 

 describe them at a future date. The majority of these belong in a 

 group closely related to Neobrotica but for which I beUeve a genus 

 should be erected. They possess many characters common to both 

 Neobrotica and Eucerotoma. They have the transverse sulcus across 

 the prothorax, the appendiculate claws and the open anterior coxal 

 cavities, which are common to both Neobrotica and Eucerotoma (in 

 Eucerotoma the coxal cavities are not so widely open); but unlike 

 N. variabilis, have strongly costate elytra, almost as strong as in 

 Eucerotoma. Yet unlike Eucerotoma they do not have the excavated 

 face and excavated antennal joints in the male; however, the lower 

 front of the head goes a step towards the excavate face of Eucerotoma 

 in being bent inwards and is without the carina down the lower front 

 that is found in Neobrotica. It is true that in most species of Neobro- 

 tica there are more or less evident traces of costation, but not to the 

 degree of these beetles, which in turn are not so strongly costate as in 

 Eucerotoma. Like Eucerotoma they occur mostly in the Andes, but a 

 few are from other parts of South America. 



There is yet another group strongly suggestive of the genus Cero- 

 toma, of which N. denticornis Jacoby is representative. Jacoby gave 

 it its specific name because the third and fourth antennal joints in the 

 male are cut out in a manner similar to that found in Cerotoma. 

 These differ from species of Cerotoma in having the anterior coxal 

 cavities open and they have a transverse sulcus across the prothorax. 

 A^. denticornis is only one of a fairly large group possessing these 

 characteristics, that occurs in both Central and South America. 

 Besides having the cut-out antennae, the front of the head is also 



