The Beetles of Southern Arizona. 



By H. F. WICKHAM. 



The following list includes beetles collected by the author 

 during a trip to Southern Arizona and the adjacent portions 

 of California, in the summer of 1890. While incomplete, it 

 will serve to give an idea of the fauna of a most interesting 

 region with which most collectors are unacquainted. It is long 

 since any works have been published treating of the Coleop- 

 tera of the southern part of the Territory, the papers bv Dr. 

 J. L. Le Conte 1 being the last relating to the subject as a 

 whole, though numerous short notes or descriptions of isolated 

 species have appeared from time to time 



It will be noticed by the student of geographical distribu- 

 tion that the insects of northern Arizona 2 are widelv different 

 from those of the southern part. This is due mostly, no doubt, 

 to the difference in altitude, since the former region is a 

 highly elevated plateau lying to a great extent within or above 

 the piiion belt. On the other hand the southern plains are 

 chiefly low. and onlv on the mountains have I met with conif- 

 erous trees of any kind. The giant cactus is unknown in the 

 north and many other large cacti which abound to the south- 

 ward seem to be lacking elsewhere. The "maguey" and sev- 

 eral other spiny plants of allied families, which are abundant 

 along the lower half of the territory, are much less frequently 

 seen to the northward. The mesquite grows commonly about 



1 "Catalogue of Coleoptera of the region adjacent to the boundary line be- 

 tween the United States and Mexico". Jour. Acad. Phil., 1S5S: and "List of 

 Coleoptera collected near Fort Whipple, Arizona, by Dr. Elliott Coues, U. 

 S. A., in 1864-5". Proc. Acad. Phil., 1S66. 



8 See "A List of some Coleoptera from the northern portions of New- 

 Mexico and Arizona,"' by H. F. Wickham, in Vol. Ill of this Bulletin. 



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