48 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM voum 



Disonycha barberi Blake 



Figure 66 

 Disonycha barberi Blake, Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 41, p. 327, 1951. 



From 5.4 to 6.6 mm. in length, oblong oval, shining; eyes unusually 

 large; pale yellow; head with a broad dark occipital band extending 

 in a point down the front and sometimes about eyes and sides, an- 

 tennae with the basal and two apical joints pale; pronotum entirely 

 pale; elytra with a sutural and marginal dark vitta, uniting at apex, 

 and a median vitta; legs dark at apex of femora, the tibiae and tarsi 

 entirely dark, the breast and sometimes abdomen at tip and sides dark. 



Head shining, the broad dark occipital band finely punctate on the 

 occiput and front, the dark extending down front in a point, some- 

 times about eyes and sides, the mouthparts dark, eyes unusually large, 

 interocular space less than half the width of the head, a fovea on each 

 side composed of punctures, tubercles well marked, carina not wide 

 and lower front short. Antennae dark with the 3 basal and 2 apical 

 joints paler. Prothorax about twice as wide as long with slightly 

 arcuate sides, wide anterior angles and a faint transverse depression 

 across base, entirely pale yellow, shining, very finely and faintly punc- 

 tate. Scutellum dark. Elytra shining, more distinctly punctate than 

 pronotum, pale yellow, with a wide dark sutural vitta uniting with a 

 marginal one at apex, median vitta moderately wide, epipleiu-a dark. 

 Body beneath shining, lightly pubescent, the breast dark and some- 

 times tip of abdomen and sides dark. Femora pale with dark apex, 

 tibiae and tarsi dark. Length 5.4 to 6.6 mm., width 3 to 3.3 mm. 



Type: USNM 61130, and twenty paratypes, one in MCZ and one 

 in BM, originally collected at Brownsville, Texas, on Condalia obovata 

 Hooker and later reared from Phaulothamnus spinescens A. Gray. 



Other localities: United States: Texas: San Bonita and Sebas- 

 tian. Mexico: on plane from Mexico; Los Mochis, Sinaloa, C. T. 

 Dodds; Mazatldn, Sinaloa, Van Dyke collection. 



Remarks: Although this was originally described from Browns- 

 ville, Texas, both Mr. Barber and I always felt that it was not native 

 there. I recall Mr. Barber saying that he believed it was imported 

 from tropical America. Therefore when I found in some material 

 from the California Academy of Science two specimens from different 

 localities in Sinaloa, Mexico, collected in different years, I suspected 

 that the real habitat of this species is on the Pacific coast in that 

 region, and that it had been introduced into southern Texas in some 

 shipments of fruit or vegetables, or possibly had come in by plane. 



