6 Journal New York Entomological Society. [VoL xix. 



Dr. Leconte was only twenty when he published his first descriptions. 

 The material is on hand in this building waiting for you to go to 

 work and follow in his footsteps. 



Gentlemen, I thank you for your attention, and congratulating 

 you upon the healthy growth of the society and urging upon you the 

 need of more copious field notes, of more paragraphs for the Journal 

 and of more specialists in the society, I wish you all good health, good 

 luck and lots of good bugs for 1911. 



NOTES ON COCCINELLID^. IV. 



By Charles W. Leng, 



West New Brighton, New York. 



Variable Maculation in Coccinellid.^. 



The variable character of the maculation of the Coccinellidae is 

 not only shown by inspection of the insects themselves but is reflected 

 in the numerous specific names indicating spots, stripes and bands 

 that have been applied to them. In no other family do we find so 

 many names like nnipiinctata, bipnnctata. tripunctata, etc., which are 

 repeated in the Coccinellidae over and over again and might be ar- 

 ranged in a complete series to 28-punctata, with no numbers missing 

 except perhaps 17 and 23. Even combinations like bistripushdata 

 have been formed to indicate the number of spots; and fasciafas and 

 cinctas and lincatas in all manner of combinations to describe other 

 styles of ornamentation. 



The question arises in the study of these insects as to how much 

 importance is to be attached to these differences in maculation. Does 

 each pattern indicate a genus or a species, and each variation in the 

 pattern a subspecies or variety requiring a name; or are the dift'er- 

 ences sometimes merely individual characteristics? Are some of the 

 species capable of producing offspring decidedly different in macula- 

 tion? Are such dift'erences in maculation partly due to temperature 

 and moisture or some other pupal environment ? 



In connection with these questions we may compare the method 

 of treating similar dift'erences in the European Coccinellidae and two 

 papers that have recently appeared in America, viz., " Notes on the 



