1917] HololeptincE of the United States 381 



Hololepta populnea Leconte. Ann. Lye. N. York, V., p. HKi. 1851. 



bractea Er. Marscul. Mon. p. 157, t. 4, fig. 15. 1853 (in error). 

 populnea Marseul. Mon. p. 562, pi. II, fig. 5. 1850. 

 Narrowly oblong, nearly parallel. Front without striae, preocular 

 tooth short. Mandibles as long as the head (cf ) or slightly shorter ( 9 )• 

 Pronotum bisinuate at base, with a more or less lightly impressed 

 median stria, extending half way from base to apex; marginal stria 

 entire, strong slightly sinuate behind middle, or interrupted or with 

 the entire posterior half lacking. Elytra the width of pronotum at 

 base, parallel; bi-or tri-striate, the first stria short, about one-third the 

 length of elytra, second shorter, one-half the length of the first with a 

 short apical appendix, third punctiform or absent; subhumeral stria 

 deep, abbreviated slightly at base and apex. Infiexed border of elytra 

 slightly rugose. Propygidium smooth on disk, extremely sparsely 

 punctate laterally with deep punctures. Pygidium very finely and 

 sparsely punctulate. Mentum concave (cf), less concave (9 ), sparsely 

 punctulate; gula with a broad V-shaped excavation, which has a 

 short longituclinal carina at the base (cf) or with a small V-shaped 

 impression (9)- Prosternum broadly emarginate at apex, finely 

 punctulate. Length 3.5-5 mm. 



Utah, Arizona, southern California and New Mexico. 



Variants. The typical form as described by Leconte has 

 the marginal stria of the thorax entire, and all the Leconte 

 types have such a marginal stria; many of the specimens which 

 I have examined have the stria more or less interrupted; in the 

 extreme form the posterior half of the stria is absent; every 

 possible intergrade is present in my series, even one in which 

 the stria is broadly interrupted on one side and strong and entire 

 on the other. 



The length of the apical appendix also varies, in some it is 

 extremely short and in one it is connected to the second by two 

 punctures. The propygidial sculpture also varies, usually 

 in proportion to the length of the apical appendix, but the 

 correlation is not perfect. 



One specimen agrees fairly well with Marseul's description 

 of H. bractea Erichson in having the appendical stria directed 

 towards the first stria and in pygidial sculpture. MarseiU, 

 in his first description (1853) of bractea reported it from the 

 United States, and placed popuhiea in synonomy with it. 

 He had at that time not seen the type of bractea. In a later 

 description (1860) made after he had seen the type bractea, 

 and had received specimens of populnea from Leconte, he states 

 that the two species are distinct. I hesitate to assign the 



