188 ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 



Body glabrous, black : antennae shoi-ter than the body, obso- 

 letely annulated with cinereous : front impunctured : thorax 

 slightly punctured at base and each side j a lateral, small, sub- 

 acute tubercle : scutel rounded at tip ; elytra with numerous, in- 

 dented, irregular, longitudinal, abbreviated, confluent lines ; a 

 few distant punctures towards the base. 



Length four-fifths of an inch. 



This singular insect I found near the Rocky [405] Mountains, 

 and in the "vicinity of the rivers Platte (Nebraska) and Arkansa. 

 Mr. Nuttall also obtained specimens on the Upper Missouri. 



It is essentially distinct from the genus Lamia, (to which it is 

 most closely related,) by the total absence of wings, and by having 

 the elytra inseparably united into one piece. The epipleura em- 

 brace the sides of the abdomen, as in the genus Pimelia, &c. 

 and its gibbous or convex form and somewhat pointed abdomen 

 give to it almost the habit of some species of that genus. 



SAPERDA. 



1. S. ALTERNATA. — Blackisli, with cinereous hair and ferru- 

 ginous spots ; thorax long. 



Inhabits the United States. 



Body blackish-brown, with sparse, cinereous, prostrate hair, 

 varied with spots and lines of dense ferruginous hair : head, with 

 the edge around the antennae, much elevated, somewhat spinose 

 on the inner side; between the antennae profoundly indented : 

 antennae longer than the body, attenuated : thorax cylindric, 

 rather long, narrower than the elytra ; with four ferruginous 

 lines ; elytra with three or four series of irregular, ferruginous 

 spots : tip rounded. 



Length, male seven-twentieths, female nine-twentieths of an 

 inch. 



The marginal and sutural series of elytral spots [406] more 

 regularly alternate with the intervening colors than the inter- 

 mediate series do. 



It somewhat resembles Olivier's figure of S. maculata, but 

 the thorax is much shorter, and the spot are differently disposed. 



[Belongs to Dorcaschenia Lee. — Lec] 



[Vol. III. 



