August — December 1SS9.] 



PSYCHE. 



239 



vex, not concave as in our eastern spe- 

 cies. In other characters it does not 

 seem to differ from its allies. 



Male. — Very similar to P. viridis ; 

 dull grey- or greenish-brown ; elytra 

 subhyaline fulvous-bi^own ; beneath 

 paler ; propleura with a black spot. 

 Length about 4 mm. 



Face rugosely punctured above, front 

 with shallow punctures ; lorae narrow, 

 tumid. Apex of the clypeus nan^owly 

 depressed. Antennae pale brown, se- 

 tae darker, claws brown. Abdomen 

 tinged with rufous. This form hardly 

 differs from the brown males of t'/r/^/i'; 

 thepronotum is somewhat more rounded 

 before, the general color is a more uni- 

 form gi^eyish-brown, and there is no in- 

 dication of the dark shade on the basal 

 angles of the scutellum so generallv 

 found in the male viridis. 



California. Described from two fe- 

 males and three males. Nos. 602^ 

 and 603 $ . Coquillett. 



The existence of this species on the 

 Pacific coast suggests a very interesting 

 line of conjecture to which I wish to 

 draw attention here. In Pediopsis 

 we find three species of a uniform green 

 color and closeh- allied structurallv but 

 still separable by characters apparently 

 constant, \\x : viresceiis ranging over 

 the whole of Europe and Great Britian ; 

 vi?-idis occupying the whole of North 

 America east of the Rock}' Mountains 

 and extending its range southward at 

 least to the southern boundarv of the 

 United States ; and occidentalis with 

 an unknown range on the Pacific coast. 

 The differences between these species 



have been indicated above. A careful 

 review of these will show that the Cali- 

 fornian species Is ver}^ close to the Euro- 

 pean while our eastern form differs more 

 widely from both ; still in some char- 

 acters occidentalis approaches much 

 nearer to viridis than to virescens., such 

 as the form and sculpturation of the pron- 

 otum, and the general proportions of the 

 whole insect ; the form of the clypeus 

 and ventral plate agree very closely with 

 virescens and seem to all}' the insect 

 most closelv with that species. Thus 

 far the females. Of the males I cannot 

 speak as positively ; the brown forms 

 occurring with viridis and occidentalis 

 I have assumed to be the males of these 

 species. In the case of viridis I have 

 all but positive proof, but in occidentalis 

 analogy has been my only guide. If 

 my assignment of the males is correct 

 we have in virescens only green males 

 (I can find no record of a brown form), 

 in viridis both green and browai forms, 

 the latter by far the more abundant in 

 New York, and in occidentalis only 

 brown males as far as known. The 

 brown males of our American species 

 are scarcely separable, but a few char- 

 acters seem to be available for this pur- 

 pose ; possiblv these brown males are 

 melanic forms dependant on atmospheric 

 conditions for their appearance. 



A question naturally suggested by a 

 comparison of these closely allied spec- 

 ies is : Where did they originate and 

 how are they related } For an explana- 

 tion at all satisfactory we must go back 

 to a time before the glacial epoch when 

 doubtless the parent form occupied a 



