VITTATE CHRYSOMELID BEETLES DISONYCHA — BLAKE 45 



Remarks: Throughout its wide distribution from North America 

 to Argentina this species shows httle variation. The aedeagus varies 

 somewhat in the shape of the tip, but it is doubtful whether this sHght 

 variation is of much importance. The food plant appears to be 

 always Amaranthus. 



Fabricius (1775) originally applied the Linnaean name tomentosa 

 to a species that he described in contradiction to Linnaeus' "elytris 

 subtomentosis" as having the "elytra in rostro glabra, nitida." He 

 gave the locality in this first description as "America." In 1781, re- 

 peating his shorter diagnostic description of this species, he gave it 

 the name glabrata and quoted the Linnaean description of tomentosa 

 with a question. The locality this time he gave as "Africa aequinoc- 

 tialis" (not, as Harold stated, "America aequinoctialis"). In 1787, 

 Fabricius again published the same short description of glabrata, 

 without mentioning Linnaeus' tomentosa and without locality. In 

 1792 the original long description under the name glabrata was re- 

 peated, with the locality this time given as Jamaica, and in his treat- 

 ment of glabrata in 1801 Fabricius again gave the locality as Jamaica. 

 From the original description (1775) it is plain that Fabricius had 

 before him something quite different from Linnaeus' Chrysomela 

 tomentosa, which is probably some species of Galerucella. The original 

 description of glabrata applies in every way to the Disonycha to which 

 the name glabrata is now given. 



Disonycha trivittataf new species 



Figure 60 



About 6 mm. in length, oblong oval, shining, mirror smooth; pale 

 yellow; head with a tiny dark occipital spot; pronotum with a faint 

 reddish brown median streak; elytra with a ^\'ide sutural and narrow 

 marginal vitta uniting narrowly at apex; body beneath pale, femora 

 and tibiae at apex dark, tarsi dark. 



Head with interocular space about half its width, rounded over 

 occiput, a cluster of punctures near eye, tubercles swollen, carina 

 narrow and sharp, lower front long, pale except for a small dark 

 occipital spot and a dark labrum. Antennae moderately long and 

 dark, with the three basal joints pale edged, apical joint tending to 

 be reddish brown. Prothorax nearly twice as broad as long, with 

 arcuate sides, moderately convex, without depressions, shiny, pale 

 yellow, a faint reddish bro^vn median stripe. Scutellum dark. 

 Elytra shining, smooth, very faintly punctate, pale, with a wide 

 dark sutural vitta tapering to a narrow dark sutural edge at apex, 

 this joined with a narrow dark marginal vitta, epipleura dark. Body 



