NORTH AMERICAN COLEOPTKRA. 29 



A. remotest riata Deij.— Obloug oval, moderately convex, brownish or 

 very slightly piceons, the males shining with faint bronze lustre, the females 

 dull. Antennte always rufo-testaceous. Head smooth, with faint frontal im- 

 pressions. Thorax about one and a half times as wide at base as long at middle, 

 apex emarginate, the angles slightly prominent to the front, sides arcuate, 

 slightly wider at middle than at base, hind angles sharply rectangular, disc con- 

 vex, with a feeble lateral depression, narrower in front, broader at base, basal 

 region with two shallow depressions each side, the outer longer and somewhat 

 triangular, the inner linear, the basal region sparsely punctate, often very feebly 

 so. Elytra finely striate, .strife at most finely and feebly punctate, sometimes 

 smooth, intervals flat in both sexes. Body beneath smooth and shining, the 

 metathorax and abdomen darker in color; epipleurje paler. Legs always pale 

 rufo-testaceous. Length .26— ..32 inch. ; 6.5—8 mm. 



The scutelhir stria is long and usually entire. The ocellate punc- 

 tures of the eighth stria form an interrupted series. The tip of the 

 presternum has a distinct marginal line and two punctures from 

 which arise short setie. 



Zimmermann states that the sides of the metasternum are sparsely, 

 but distinctly punctate. This may be observed in a few specimens, 

 but is by no means evident. It more often happens that the sides 

 of the first ventral segment have a few coarse punctures. 



There is no species in the Celia series which seems to have been 

 less understood than the present. In the series before me, which 

 consists of more than fifty specimens about equally divided between 

 Mr. Ulke's cabinet and my own, after a proper separation of the 

 sexes and a thorough cleaning of the surface, it became at once 

 evident by the different lustre of the sexes how several names have 

 been given to them. The description given by Putzeys of relncem 

 Mann, will be at once recognized as having been made from a male. 

 The same fact is evident in the case of ierrestris Lee, the remark 

 made by LeConte that the striie are deeper than in remotestriafa is 

 true, and is purely a sexual difference. 



When the sexual differences dependent on surface lustre are un- 

 derstood there will not be ob.«erved any great variation in the species, 

 except that arising from less maturity of the specimens. 



As a rule, the sj^ecimens from the more northern regions of the 

 species' habitat are larger in size. 



A. discors Kby., is placed as a synonym of this species. At the 

 time of his first examination of the type J)r. LeConte considered it 

 gibba (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. London, 1870). On his return home 

 he revised his notes (Proc. Acad. 187o, p. 324), and (liscors appears 

 as a synonym ul' chalcea. Finally, in the IxConte cabinet is a speci- 



TKANS. AM. KNT. SOC. XIX. FEBRUARY, 1892. 



