JOURNAL 



jOfto ]9oFk ^in^omologiral %nMi. 



Vol. XXVIII. Septembek-Dixember, 1920. Nos. 3and4. 



THE BEETLES OF THE FAMILY CUPEDID^ OF 

 AMERICA, NORTH OF MEXICO. 



By Geo. W. Barrer and Wm. O. Ellis, 

 Cereal and Forage Division, 

 U. S. Bureau of Entomology, 

 Arlington, Mass. 



The members of the family Cupedidce are undoubtedly among the 

 most remarkable and rare of the Coleoptera known to occur m Amer- 

 ica, north of Mexico. They are especially remarkable because of 

 their peculiar tuberculate character and the grotesque sculpturing of 

 their bodies. Two taxonomic papers dealing with the American 

 species of the family have been published: 

 LeConte — " On the Cupesidse of North America," in Trans. Amer. 



Entom. Soc, V, 1874, pp. 87-88. 

 Casey — "" Synopsis of the genus Citpcs " in Ann. X. Y. Acad. Sci.. IX, 



1897, pp. 637-638. 



Five species of the family Cupedidas have been described from our 

 territory, four of which have been held to be distinct wliile the fifth. 

 Cupcs ocitlatiis Casey (13), has been reduced to the rank of a variety 

 by Blatchley (24). After carefully reviewing the facts, however, 

 the writers believe that ocnlatus has good specific characters and it is 

 here considered as a distinct species, the reasons being enumerated 

 hereafter. 



Three of the .\mcrican species have never been figured. This 



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