VITTATE CHRYSOMELID BEETLES DISONYCHA — BLAKE 71 



width of the dark vittae varying, in Brazihan and Bohvian specimens 

 the median vitta joining with the lateral marginal vitta, leaving only 

 a very narrow pale vitta cm-ving towards to margin at apex, in the 

 Argentinian specimens the median vitta only partially joining with 

 the lateral or entirely free, but usually wider at the apex and shghtly 

 club-shaped. Epipleura dark. Body beneath with prosternum and 

 abdomen pale but the breast usually dark (in one specimen pale on 

 the side) ; femora pale with dark apices, tibiae pale in the middle, tarsi 

 dark. Length 5 to 6.2 mm., width 2.3 to 2,8 mm. 



Type: Not designated, probably in BM, described from four speci- 

 mens from "Argentine R." One specimen in MCZ (Bowditch collec- 

 tion, 2nd Jacoby collection), from the province of Buenos Aires, C. 

 Bruch, bears Jacoby's label "argentinensis" and a type label but was 

 collected in 1903. 



Other localities: Argentina: La Plata, P. G. Russell, M. Kisluik; 

 Famailla, San Pablo, Tucuman, F. Monr6s; Tucumdn, G. L. Harring- 

 ton; Buenos Aires, G. L. Harrington, C. Bruch; San Fernardo, Don 

 Torcuato, Buenos Aires, Monr6s. Chile: Germain. Uruguay: Mon- 

 tevideo. Brazil: Campinas, A. Hempel; S. Leopoldo, Padre Pio Buck. 

 Bolivia: Reyes, W. M. Mann, Mulford Biological Expedition, 1921- 

 22. One specimen taken at Boston in a shipment of peppers from 

 Argentina, anothei at New York in sunflower seed. 



Remarks: This is an unusually distinctive little species because of 

 the rugose head and prothorax and the tendency of the median elytral 

 vitta to unite with the marginal, leaving only a very narrow pale 

 vitta. The shape of the aedeagus is unusual, too. The appearance 

 of the beetle is much like that of the North American Disonycha 

 maritima Mannerheim because of the coloration and a similar coarse 

 punctation. The female beetle from Reyes, Bolivia, has the same 

 elytral color pattern as the male from Campinas, Brazil. 



Disonycha maritima Mannerheim 



Figure 70 



Disonycha maritima Mannerheim, Bull. Soc. Imp. Moscou, voL 16, p. 311, 1843. — 

 Crotch, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 25, p. 64, 1873. — Horn, 

 Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vol. 16, p. 206, 1889.— Blake, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 vol. 82, art. 28, pp. 51, 52, 1933. 



From 4 to 5 mm. in length, broadly oblong oval, somewhat shining, 

 densely punctate ; pale with dark labrum and occipital spot extending 

 down front; dark sutural, median, and marginal vittae covering most 

 of the elytra; undersurface dark except prosternum and last ventral 

 segments. 



Head with interocular space a little more than half width of head, 

 frontal carina narrow and slightly produced, occiput and front as far 



