Journal New York Entomological Society, t^'"'- >^-^\'i' 



MICROCLYTUS— A CORRECTION. 



By Charles W. Leng, 

 Staten Island, N. Y. 



According to the Classification of the Coleoptera of North Amer- 

 ica (S. M. C. no. 507, 1883), the genus Microclytiis has the following 

 characters, viz. : second joint of antennae equal to fourth, antennae 

 not spinose. The type of the genus is Cyrtophonts gazellula Hald., 

 and it is pointed out, p. 305, that it has the form and coloration of the 

 European Anaglyptus mysticus but differs " essentially by the second 

 joint of the antennae being fully half as long as the third and scarcely 

 shorter than the fourth joint." 



In 1887 I noticed that in my two specimens of Microclytus from 

 Canada the antennre were not as described in the Classification but 

 had the second joint short as usual in the Anaglypti. The discrepancy 

 was discussed with Dr. George H. Horn, in whose collection were 

 two specimens from Ohio like those on which the Classification was 

 based, and we concluded that the difference was a sexual matter, and 

 exchanged specimens so that each should have both sexes. The 

 amended key to the genera of Anaglypti (Ent. i\m., II, 1887, p. 195) 

 and the treatment of the species of Microclyfits (Ent. Am., III. 1888, 

 p. 23) by which M. gibhuhis and M. nigcr of Leconte were sunk in 

 synonymy, were based upon the theory that they were identical with 

 -1/. gazcUula Hald. in which species the antennte dift'ered in the sexes. 



I regret to say that this appears now to have been entirely wrong, 

 for recently ]Mr. Frank Morris, of Peterborough, Ontario, has called 

 my attention to a considerable number of specimens of Microclytiis 

 that he has caught on the blossom of choke-cherry in which the sec- 

 ond joint of the antennae is only half the length of the fourth joint in 

 both sexes, thus disproving the supposed sexual character of the dis- 

 crepancy noted thirty years ago. The antennae in the specimens as- 

 sumed to be males are nearly as long as the body, while in those 

 assumed to be females they barely attain the middle band of the elytra. 

 In both cases the antennae bear the same long hairs that are to be 

 noted in M. gazcUnla, and to which Casey has called attention (Mem- 

 oirs, III, p. 375) as characteristic of the genus. The specimens sent 



