112 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



The material upon which this paper is based consists of the types of 

 the Van Duzee species together with the entire collection upon which 

 his review of the genus was founded; the types of the Osborn and 

 Ball species with an extensive series of the Iowa forms, the result of 

 the life history work: typical specimens of the two Gillette and Baker 

 species, as well as a series of the Colorado forms through the kindness 

 of Prof. Gillette, together with numerous smaller series from different 

 parts of the country, mentioned under the species. Van Duzee has so 

 thoroughly characterized the genus * that there is little to add in that 

 respect. 



In the determination of the species he was less fortunate, as on exam- 

 ination of a large series the specimens determined as Fitch's trimacu- 

 lata proved to be only an obscurely marked form of bifasciata, often 

 found in specimens collected late in the season, and as a result of this 

 error the real trimaculaia was described as insignis. Still, too much 

 credit cannot be given for the careful and painstaking manner in which 

 he brought out specific characters, hampered as he was by the insuffi- 

 ciency of the material at hand. Of two of his ■s^&cxzi, punctifrons and 

 occidentals, no new material is at hand so that nothing further in regard 

 to their variation can be given, and of canadensis only two additional 

 females, both too much altered in color to aid in characterizing that 

 species, have been seen. 



Of most of the rest of the species an abundance of material has been 

 at hand showing the ordinary variation of the species and the normal 

 differences in the sexes. 



Although doubtless somewhat artificial, the grouping in the synopsis 

 is an attempt to show some of the more prominent variations in the 

 generic type and their probable relationship. In the first group are 

 placed species like tristis, with stout bodies, strong elytra, and deep 

 colors. 



The second group includes all the species with transversely banded 

 elytra and is closely connected to the third by bifasciata, in which the 

 second band is often obsolete. 



The species of the fourth or t/zW^/j group all have males much smaller 

 and darker than the females. 



The punctifrons group is probably the most distinct and easily recog- 

 nizable of all ; here the males as seen from above scarcely differ in size 



♦Review of the North American Species of Pediopsis, Ent. Amer., Vol. V., pp. 165-174, 

 Sept., 1889. 



