54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. m 



Kemarks: These two specimens bear no locality labels, simply an 

 old name label, ^'Dis. 4 vittata.^' Altica quadrivittata Illiger from Brazil 

 has been wrongly assigned to the genus Disonycha for over one hundred 

 years, from the Dejean catalog to Heikertinger in the Junk catalog. 

 Illiger described it as one of the Oedipodes (with swollen claw joint), 

 shaped like a Lema with small head and prothorax and pubescent, 

 striate punctate elytra. These two specimens with the large dark 

 pronotal spots and shiny, glabrous surface, are comparable in size 

 but not in structure with the specimens of the alternata group. 



Disonycha venezuelae Jacoby 



FiGUKEs 55, 56 

 Disonycha venezuelae Jacoby, Entomologist, vol. 34, p. 148, 1901. 



Between 8.5 and 10 mm. in length, elongate oblong oval, somewhat 

 shining although finely alutaceous, densely and moderately coarsely 

 punctate; head, undersurface, and legs black; antennae, except the 

 three or four basal joints that are pale with dark edging, piceous; 

 prothorax pale with either a broad band or three to five small dark 

 spots across the middle; elytra with a moderately wide dark sutural 

 vitta uniting at apex with a narrow dark marginal vitta, median vitta 

 very wide, a distinct depression from below humerus down the side 

 of elytron. 



Head with a short lower front and interocular space more than half 

 the width of head, eyes small, head entirely dark, faintly shining and 

 feebly alutaceous, moderately coarsely and irregularly punctate over 

 occiput and front, frontal tubercles well marked, a short, blunt, little 

 produced carina. Antennae piceous except the pale basal joints that 

 have dark edges. Prothorax not twice as wide as long, not very con- 

 vex, a little depressed over scutellum and at sides, with other small 

 depressions, not shiny, distinctly alutaceous and densely and moder- 

 ately coarsely punctate; pale reddish yellow with a broad dark band 

 or with from three to five small dark spots across the middle. Elytra 

 with a depression running from below humeri down the side and a 

 resulting crease or costa above the margin, alutaceous and moderately 

 coarsely and densely punctate, a wide dark sutiu-al vitta uniting at 

 apex with a dark marginal vitta, and a broad median vitta. Epipleura 

 dark. Undersurface and legs entirely dark, with a fine pale pubes- 

 cence. Length 8.4 to 10 mm., width 4 to 6.8 mm. 



Type: ?In BM, described from Venezuela, from three specimens. 

 One specimen in MCZ (Bowditch collection) is labeled simply Vene- 

 zuela, second Jacoby collection; it may be a cotype. Two other 

 specimens are m the Bowditch collection from Caracas, Venezuela. 



