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On the reported occurence of Leptura variicornis 



in North America. 



By E. A. Schwarz. 



Mr. C. A. Dohm ("Exotisches", No. 333; Stett, Entom. Zeit. 18S6 

 p. 191 — 2) recites that some years since he received from Dr. Leconte a 

 vial of alcoholic Coleoptera marked "Cross Lake to Cumberland House'', 

 British America, and that among them there was a Leptura, which upon 

 comparison with Russian specimens proved to be identical "in all es- 

 sential points" with L. variicornis Dalman; the only difference being in 

 the coloration of the antennae. In Dohrn's American specimen the 6th 

 and 8th antennal joints are entirely yellow, whereas in the typical varii- 

 cornis they are black with a yellow basal spot. Mr. Dohrn does not con- 

 sider this difference as having specific importance and expresses his 

 astonishment at not finding L. variicornis in any published catalogue of 

 North American Coleoptera. 



To any one familiar with our present knowledge of the distribution 

 of N. A. Coleoptera it would appear highly improbable that the locality 

 above mentioned should furnish a Leptura not yet represented in our 

 collections; it would appear still more improbable that Dr. Leconte 

 should have overlooked — as Mr. Dohrn seems to assume — a species new 

 to our fauna of the size indicated by L. variicornis. Thus, when Dr. 

 Horn (who had not yet seen the Stettiner Ent. Zeitung for 1886) recently 

 called my attention to the above note, I felt convinced that there must be 

 something wrong with Dohrn's conclusions. Upon comparing Leconte's 

 table of N. A. Leptura? (New Species, Smithson. Misc. Coll. 264, 1873, 

 p. 215 — 223) with Ganglbauer's careful description of L. variicornis 

 (Verh. Zool. Bot. Ver., Wien, XXXI, 1881, p. 704 [Dalman's original 

 description not being accessible to me at present]), it became at once 

 evident to me that Mr. Dohrn had before him a female specimen of our 

 common L. canadensis of the form known as erythroptera Kirby. Sub- 

 sequent comparison of specimens with Ganglbauer's description corrob- 

 orated my opinion. 



To be brief, the red female of our Z, canadensis answers perfectly to 

 the description of variicornis, and since we have through Mr. Dohrn an 

 actual comparison of specimens, there is but little doubt left of the iden- 

 tity of L. variicornis with canadensis var. erythroptera. The coloration 

 of the antennal joints in canadensis is by no means constant: in the male 

 they are often entirely black, in the female the 6th and 8th joints are 

 sometimes entirely yellow or more or less tipped with black. Still, to 

 make certain of the identity, a comparison of the males is still necces- 

 sary. Strangely enough Prof, Ganglbauer does not describe that sex in 



