ART. 9 WEST INDIAN BUPRESTIDAE FISHER 173 



This species varies considerably in size and in the arrangement of 

 the colored markings on the elytra. There will be no difficulty in 

 separating the maculate forms from acuminata De Geer, and the 

 specimens which have the elytra entirely black can be separated 

 from it by the head being more spareely, irregularly punctate, and 

 very strongly shining. There does not seem to be any good external 

 characters for separating the sexes, either in this species or in 

 acuminata. 



It was described by Castelnau and Gory from North America 

 without giving any definite locality. LeConte (1859) described the 

 black form from Georgia, under the name of opaca. It is widely dis- 

 tributed and its range extends from the Middle States into Mexico. 

 Chevi'olat (1867) records it from the Isla de Pinos in the collections 

 of Gundlach and Poey. Gundlach (1891) reports it from the same 

 locality. Specimens have been seen from the following West Indian 

 localities: Coll. U. S. Nat. Mus. ; Bahamas, collected on vessel by 

 (H. F. Wickham). Coll. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. :" Bahamas " 

 without definite locality; black form, Nassau, Bahamas, May-June, 

 1904 (W. M, Wheeler). No specimens were found in the Poey col- 

 lection in Philadelphia, but there is a single example labeled No. 

 1705 in the Gundlach Museum in Habana which has not been 

 examined by the writer. 



MELANOPHILA ACUMINATA (De Geer) 



Buprestis acuminata De Geer, Mem. Hist. Ins., vol. 4, 1774, pp. 133-134. 

 Buprestis acuta Gmelin, Linn. Syst. Nat., 13 ed., vol. 1, pt. 4, 1788, p. 1939. 

 Buprestis morio Fabricius, Ent. Syst., vol. 1, pt. 2, 1792, pp. 210-211. — 



Paykull, Faun. Suec. Ins., vol. 2, 1799, p. 230. 

 Buprestis appendiculata Fabrictus, Ent. Syst., vol. 1, pt. 2, 1792, p. 210. — 



EscHscHOLTZ, Zool. Atlas, vol. 1, 1829, p. 9. 

 Phaenops appendiculata Dejean, Cat. Coleop., 3 ed., 1836, p. 89. 

 Apatura appendiculata Castelnau and Gory, vol. 2, 1838, pp. 8-9, pi. 2, 



fig. 14; addenda, pp. 2 and 3. 

 Anthaana pecchioUi Castelnau and Goby, Mon. Bupr., vol. 2, 1839, pp. 



33-34, pi. 8, fig. 46. 

 Bup7-estis atropurpureus Say, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. 3, 1823, 



p. 160. 

 Oxypteris appendiculata Kirby, Richardson's Fauna Bor. Amer., vol. 4, 1837, 



pp. 160-161. 

 Melanophila immaculata Mannerheim, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou, vol. 



10, no. 8, 1837, p. 70. 

 Buprestis lonyipes Say, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., vol. 3, 1823, p. 164. 

 Melanophila longipes Manne21heim, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou, vol. 10, 



no. 8, p. 7. — Chevrolat, Ann. Soc. Ent. France, ser. 4, vol. 7, 1867, 



p. 581 (separates p. 157). — Gundlach, Contribucion a la Entom. Cuba, 



vol. 3, pt. 5, 1891, p. 164, no. 1853. 



Form broadly elongate and strongly depressed, broadly rounded in 

 front and strongly acuminate behind, uniformly black above and 



