26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vor,. 70 



along median groove smooth; interocular space more than half as 

 wide as head, median groove tending to be indistinct in coarsely 

 punctate specimens. Pronotum over twice as wide as long, convex, 

 arcuately narrowed anteriorly, with very narrow explanate margin, 

 distinctly but finely punctate; a broad, reddish brown band of 

 irregular, usually scalloped, outline. Scutellum rounded, reddish 

 brown or piceous. Elytra oblong, convex, with sides nearly parallel ; 

 humeral prominences rounded with trace of sulcus within at base 

 of elytra; margin very narrow; punctations coarse but usually not 

 deep ; a common reddish brown or piceous sutural vitta of varying 

 width and a median vitta on each elytron, also varying in width, 

 not quite reaching apex. Body beneath reddish brown, finely pubes- 

 cent ; epipleura more or less piceous. 



Length. — 4 to 7 mm. ; width 2 to 3.5 mm. 



Type locality. — Carolina. 



Distribution. — Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Mary- 

 land, Virginia, " Carolina," Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, 

 Mississippi, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois. 



In the Bosc collection at Paris there are three specimens, all similar 

 in markings, and one bearing on the label the name miniata. They 

 represent cotypes of the Fabrician species. The specimen bearing 

 the label has the third antennal joint shorter than the fourth, and 

 the head moderately coarsely punctate. The pronotum is rather 

 faintly marked with a wide reddish brown fascia, and the elytral 

 vittae are very narrow, the sutural vitta being scarcely more than 

 the darkened sutural edges. The specimen is 5.2 mm. long and 3 mm. 

 wide. 



There is great variability in this species, as in other vittate species 

 of this group, both in size and shape, and in the width of the elytral 

 vittae. It is possible that several of von Harold's species that are 

 not identified in this country may be forms of Oe. miniatco. In the 

 National Museum is a series of six specimens from Florida and Mis- 

 sissippi strikingly different from the majority. They are smaller 

 and more slender than the others and the vittae are very narrow. At 

 the other extreme is the rounded dark form, with very wide vittae, 

 that Horn called Oe. ulkei^ which may not be specifically distinct. 

 He differentiated this from miniata on the grounds of its smaller 

 size, its smoother head, and the equality of the third and fourth 

 antennal joints. Examination of a series of specimens shov\^s that 

 there is not only gradation in size of beetle and punctation of head, 

 but even in the length of the third and fourth antennal joints, these 

 two joints being rarely equal but varying from subequal to very 

 unequal with the fourth joint nearly twice as long as the third. 



W. S. Blatchley collected this species on dwarf huckleberry 

 {Gaylussacia species). 



