HOLOLEPTINJE OF THE UNITED STATES.* 



By F. G. Carnochan. 



Section I. 



The Hololeptinae in the United States comprise the genera 

 Hololepta, subdivided into Hololepta and Leionota and Iliotona 

 (n. gen.). The name Leionota, amended to Lionota by Marseul, 

 requires comment. Leionota was proposed by Dejean as a 

 genus of Histeridse in the so-called first edition of his catalogue 

 in 1821 (really the second) ; this division was retained in his 

 catalogues of 1833 (the date usually assigned to the name), and 

 1837. Under this name he cited several species of which only 

 two Hololepta qiiadridentata Fab. and H. lamina Payk. were 

 described species; this citation would ordinarily fix the genus 

 with one of the included described species as type, but Marseul 

 in 1853 pointed out, after a study of the Dejean collection, that 

 the species assigned by Dejean to qiiadridentata Fab. was not 

 that species, but another which he described as devia, and that 

 the- species lamijta was not PaykuU's species but minuta of 

 Erichson. The mere fact that the specimens which Marseul 

 saw were misidentified does not invalidate the name. We have 

 only published records to go by, and misidentification cannot 

 be absolutely proved. Marseul in 1853 used the name Leionota 

 for the same division, and in 1857 changed it to Lioderma. 

 The name of the subgenus should therefore be Leionota and is 

 ascribed to Dejean with a date of 1821 with Leionota qiiad- 

 ridentata Fab. as type, as one of the forms included in the 

 original citation, the name Lioderma becomes a synonym. 



The life history and habits of the members of this sub- 

 family are very little known. The egg is unknown, but probably 

 closely resembles the eggs of the members of the other sub- 

 famihes; I have figured the egg of Hister obtusatus Harris 

 (PI. XXX, Fig. 3). This egg is similar in shape and appearance 

 to the eggs of Saprinus and Hetcerius, white, opaque and 

 minutely roughened, about two millimeters long. Examination 

 of the ovaries of various Histerids, and observations show that 

 the eggs are ripened one at a time and are laid at appreciable 



*Cpntributions from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Institution, 

 Harvard University. No. 134. 



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