June, 1914.] LeNG: NoTES ON SCAPHINOTUS. 141 



type locality for dilatatus is St. Louis, Mo., and the long description 

 calls for a dark violet insect with coppery elytra, much wider than 

 clcvatus with the sides of thorax less elevated, exactly as shown in a 

 number of specimens taken by Mr. H. G. Barber at Langdon, Mo. 

 Dr. Roeschke treats dilatatus as a synonymn of flammeus but it 

 would be more cognizant of the described color of the elytra to con- 

 sider it a variety. 



Whether it be called simply flammeus or flammeus var. dilatatus, 

 it will be seen that the form occurring west of the Allegheny Mts. 

 differs sufficiently from that occurring east of the mountains to have 

 required a name in the opinion of Haldeman, Leconte and Roeschke. 



Coming now to the other species 6". unicolor of which Iieros has 

 been treated as a synonym, it is singular that though it also occurs 

 on both sides of the Alleghenies, no such differentiation has hitherto 

 been made. It differs from clcvatus by its size (25-30 mm.), by the 

 continuously arched elytra, the curve reaching from margin to margin 

 without any flattening of the disk, by the seta of the posterior coxa 

 being absent, and the first joint of the anterior male tarsi spongy 

 pubescent at the tip only. These characters separate unicolor and its 

 subspecies from elevatiis and its subspecies ; but, in addition it, like 

 elevatu^, possesses characters which vary, and these variations are 

 similarly correlated with its distribution. 



The greatest difficulty has long been that the sinuation of the 

 lateral margin of the elytra a little behind the middle, first pointed 

 out by Louis H. Joutel as the most obvious difference between this 

 species and elevatiis, and plainly evident in all the specimens I had 

 seen, was not shown in the figure of unicolor or mentioned in the 

 descriptions. Moreover, if one were willing to accept heros Harris 

 as a synonym of unicolor, this difficulty became increased for the very 

 careful description of Dr. Harris and the figure of heros given by 

 Leconte in 1853^ also failed to indicate this sinuation. During the 

 lifetime of the late Frederick Blanchard, I took this point up by 

 correspondence with him and he examined the Leconte collection and 

 his own and wrote me " the lateral sinuation of the elytra is feeble or 

 quite obsolete in most specimens." Either the species was variable 

 in this respect or my observation and that of Joutel and others was 

 at fault; or our eastern specimens were neither heros nor unicolor. 



1 Journ. Ac, IV, pi. 4, fig. 13. 



