A REVISION OF THE BEETLES OF THE GENUS 

 OEDIONYCHIS OCCURRING IN AMERICA NORTH 

 OF MEXICO 



By Doris Holmes Blake 

 Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 



HISTORY OF THE GENUS 



The first description of a North American species of Oedionychis 

 was by Fabricius and appeared under the name AUica thoracia} 

 The genus AUica, originally proposed by Geoff roy ^ " in place of 

 the name Mordella^'' was later sunk by Fabricius,^ who distributed 

 the species in the genera Ghrysomela, Lema, Crioceris, and Galleruca, 

 and described imder GallemLca six new North American species now 

 referred to Oedionychis. Illiger * revived the genus Altica, and fol- 

 lowing the correction made by his countrymen, Hoffmann, Miiller, 

 and others, called it Haltica. He divided this group, which was 

 previously characterized simply by its saltatorial habits, into nine 

 " families." The first two groups, the Physapodes, described as 

 having the claw joint of the posterior tarsus globosely inflated and 

 the elytra confusedly punctate or smooth, and the Oediopes, de- 

 scribed as having the posterior claw globosely inflated and the 

 elytra striate-punctate, furnished the basis for Latreille's ^ descrip- 

 tion of the genus Oedionychis. 



Not till 1860, when the English entomologist Clark ^ wrote his 

 monograph of the Halticidae, was the group again given study. 

 Clark unfortunately left his work unfinished, and his treatment of 

 the genus Oedionychis, published later,^ consists merely of a cata- 

 logue of species. In 1873 Crotch ^ presented a key to the North 

 American species of Oedionychis, a number of which he described 



1 Fabricius, Syst. Ent., App. 1775, p. 821. 



2 Geofifroy, Histoire abreg^e des Insectes, 1762, p. 244. 

 « Fabricius, Syst. Eleutii., vol. 1. 1801, pp. 49.5. 499. 



*■ Illiger, Magazin fiir Insektenkunde, vol. 6, 1807, p. 81. 



E Latreille, Cuvier's Rfegne Animal, ed. 2, vol. 5, 1829, p. 154. 



"Clark, Catalogue of Halticidae in the Collection of the British Museum. 1860. 



■^ Clark, Catalogue of Halticidae, Journ. Ent., vol. 2, 1865. p. 163. 



8 Crotch, Proc. Acad. Philadelphia, vol. 25, 1873, p. 61. 



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