JOURNAL 



JOfId JBork Qntomologiral Horiftg. 



\^ol. VII. MARCH, 1899. No. 1. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE SPECIES OF ACM/EODERA OF 

 AMERICA, NORTH OF MEXICO. 



By H. C. Fall. 



It is safe to say that any synopsis of coleoptera, no matter how 

 excellent, dating back twenty years and dealing with a genus or group 

 of any considerable magnitude, is to-day inadequate for the arrange- 

 ment of the material in any of our larger collections. Particularly is 

 this true if the metropolis of the group lies west of the Mississippi 

 valley. The skilled labor of many visiting and resident collectors has 

 brought to light in this western country hundreds of new things, which 

 after a vain effort to fasten to existing descriptions we have relegated 

 to empty spaces and vacant corners, until in many of our boxes all 

 semblance of order has disappeared. 



It is the object of the present paper to give to a small number of 

 these nondescripts a local habitation and a name ; and while a com- 

 plete revision of Acmceodera is not yet greatly needed, the discoveries 

 in the twenty years that have elapsed since Horn's paper appeared, 

 have been sufficiently numerous it is thought, to warrant the follow- 

 ing notes. 



Though none of our species of AcmcVodera are above medium size, 

 they are as a rule very pretty insects, and would doubtless share the 

 popularity of the family to which they belong, were it not for a some- 

 what unusual amount of individual variation, which gives them the 

 reputation of being a difficult lot to deal with. In his Notes on Bu- 

 prestid^e,* Crotch said " — but I am entirely unable to discover any 

 characters except the variable ones of color, sculpture and form ; so 

 that the limits of the species appear to be merely opinionative. ' ' Five 



*Proc. Acad. Sc. Phil., 1873, p. 89. 



