8 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 290 



this purpose. It allows the degree of pigmentation of the parts to be 

 shown, which is impossible to do with a simple line drawing. Female 

 genitalia have not been examined. 



Species groups — The following groups were formulated without 

 reference to the species groups advanced by Suffrian (1858, p. 345). 

 The groups that I here recognize and the basis for distinguishing 

 these groups are somewhat similar to those of Suffrian. Primarily, I 

 have depended on similarities in the elytral striae and the pronotal 

 and elytral color pattern for grouping species. The characters pre- 

 sented as typical of or similar within the species of each group are 

 briefly described, but no attempt has been made to make the charac- 

 ters that are discussed directly comparable between groups; in all 

 cases, however, the elytral striae and color pattern are described. 

 The groups are named on the basis of the species which most clearly 

 shows the characters typical of the group. The characters listed are 

 presented in approximate order of their reliability, the first character 

 being the most distinctive for that particular group. Those least 

 distinctive or consistent are at or near the end of the description. 



Basalis group: basalis Suffrian, binominis Newman, lunatus, new species, 

 mucoreus Leconte, muUisignatus Schaeffer, nolatus F., pinicola Scliaeffer, pubicol- 

 lis Linell, pubiventris Schaeffer, quadruplex Newman. 



Head, pronotum, ventral surface, and appendages black or very 

 dark; each elytron black with basal and apical spots red to orange, 

 sometimes both joining at side, or sometimes with apical spot absent, 

 infrequently with elytra entu'ely red to orange: usually with nine 

 (sometimes eight) rows of small, distinct punctures, often with two 

 or three rows at side confused; anterior margin of presternum of male 

 usually with a spine, sometimes with a pointed lobe, female usually 

 with a lobe, sometimes simple ; size generally medium to rather large. 



I regard this as the most primitive group of species of North 

 American Cryptocephalus. The nine rows of punctures seem to me to 

 be basic; reduction and modification of these rows, I believe, has led 

 to the form of the punctures shown by other species groups. The 

 elytral color pattern as shown by basalis seems to be the starting 

 point from which the patterns of other species have developed. From 

 the basalis group may have developed the qiiercus group; compare 

 the elytral pattern of multisignaius with that of atrofasciatus Jacoby. 



Quercus group: astralosus, new species, atrofasciatus Jacoby, quercus Schaeffer, 

 umbonatus Schaeffer, vapidus, new species. 



Basic elytral pattern of dark markings of two or three transverse, 

 undulate bands, sometimes absent or expanded; anterior margin of 

 presternum of both sexes produced into a broad lobe (sometimes 

 pointed in male); with eight or nine rows of distinctly impressed 



