94 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Voi. vil 



the female has the fifth segment a little longer and very broadly ogival 

 at apex. 



The following black species were said by Crotch to form a simple 

 variety of abdoniiiialis. My series of abdominalis, as before stated, and 

 of two of the species given below, are quite extended, and I am un- 

 able to detect any noteworthy variation of any kind, even in the out- 

 line of the spots, the constancy of form and ornamentation being in 

 fact one of the most remarkable instances of the kind known to me ; 

 these series are each made up of males and females. Although I do 

 not remember to have ever taken the black with the pale spotted form 

 in California, where the latter is abundant, it should, however, be 

 noted as a suspicious fact that several of the localities yielding abdom- 

 i/ia/is in my series are common also to the black species given below. 

 It is, therefore, possible that we may have here a case of dimorphism, 

 and the same may be true of Adalia hiii/icralis and bipitnctata, and of 

 Hippodamia divergens, or allied species, and masfa, but in the absence 

 of intermediate forms any consanguinity in these very puzzling cases 

 can only be proved by systematic biological observation. I might 

 prefer rather to consider these perfectly constant and well-established 

 aberrations of color — and, to some extent, of accompanying structure 

 as well, such as the more finely reflexed side margins in the black 

 forms, — more as protective adaptations to slightly changed environ- 

 ments. Of these black forms we have, at any rate, three quite well- 

 defined variations, as follows : — 



Body very broadly rounded, die head pale, sometimes more or less nubilate with 

 piceous, the pronotum black, without a well-defined pale apical margin, but with 

 a small central spur, the side margins obliquely pale, the pale area either curving 

 narrowly around the basal angles or disappearing before reaching the base, its 

 oblique inner boundaiy nearly straight and biit slightly uneven ; elytra minutely 

 punctulate, gradually rather more distinctly toward the sides, which are but nar- 

 rowly though strongly reflexed, with the edge beaded, each with a large trans- 

 verse and irregular spot before the middle, which is emarginate internally at apex 

 and externally at base ; under surface, epipleurte and legs black ; meso- and 

 met-episterna, hypomera, tarsi and abdomen pale. Length 4.2-4.9 mm.; width 

 3.5-4.2 mm. Texas ( Brownsville and El Paso), Arizona and California (Los 



Angeles and San Francisco ) plagiata, sp. nov. 



Body as in the preceding but larger and similarly colored, except that the apical 

 margin of the pronotum is narrowly pale with the medial spur disUnct and the 

 oblique inner boundary of the lateral pale area more distinctly spurred at its 

 middle point ; elytral pale spot before the middle smaller, triangular and feebly 

 oblique, the outer side truncate, the inner angle narrowly rounded. Length 

 5.0-5.7 mm.; width 4.5-4.8 mm. Florida sobrlna, sp. nov. 



