﻿494 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 102 



Antennae of female: Relative length of segments, 45:130:50:missing: 

 missing. First three segments as shown on plate 48, figure 30. 



Male genitalia: Penial plates and penial vesiculae as shown on 

 plate 47, figures 6, 4, and 5. 



Variation. — ^Among the five specimens examined the shape of the 

 juga varies from overlapping at their apices to divergent at their 

 apices. Vidal's descriptions of Mecidia pallida and of the form of 

 that species that he called virens suggest a range of variation very 

 similar to that observed for major in North America. 



Type. — Not seen; should be in the Naturhistoriska Riksmuseum, 

 Stockholm. The specimen was said to have been collected in "Nubia 

 superior." This would place the type locality somewhere in Anglo- 

 Egyptian Sudan. 



Distribution. — Specimens have been examined from the following 

 localities: Gafsa, Tunisia; Minna, northern Nigeria; Al Huseini (near 

 Lahej), Aden Protectorate and Baghdad, Iraq. The literature records 

 pallida from the Canary Islands east across North Africa and through 

 the Near East to Iran. It is also recorded from Greece. 



Neither the literature nor available specimen data provides any 

 information concerning host plants or dates of collection. 



MECIDEA PALLIDISSIMA Jensen-Haarap 



Plate 47, Figures 23-25; Plate 48, Figures 41, 42 



Mecidea ■pallidissima Jensen-Haarup, Ent. Meddel., vol. 14, pt. 1, pp. 8, 9, 

 fig. 8, a, 1922.— LiNDBERG, Not. Ent., vol. 18, pt. 3, pp. 85, 87, 1938. 



Mecidea ingramsi China, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 10, vol. 17, pp. 96-97, fig. a, 

 1936 (new synonymy) . 



A very pale species which, judging from the characteristics of the 

 male genitalia, is most closely related to kristenseni. The sexual 

 dimorphism of the antennae common to all Mecidea is more extreme 

 in pallidissima than in any of the other known species of the genus. 



Punctation of the body not darkened except on juga, pronotum 

 just behind the eyes and inner basal angle of the clavus of some 

 specimens. The setigerous punctures on the first three segments of 

 the antennae usually dark. Without dark markings along median 

 line of abdominal venter and usually mthout evidence of a dark 

 spot below each of the setigerous punctures, 



Pronotum moderately constricted near middle, with lateral margin 

 calloused but without evidence of a carina. 



Length: Male, 8.0-9.5 mm.; width across humeral angles: 1.9-2.2 

 mm. Female, 9.6-11.0 mm. ; width across humeral angles, 2.2-2.7 mm. 



Antennae of male: Relative length of segments 35:55:135:95:80. 

 First three segments as shown on plate 48, figure 41. 



Antennae of female: Relative length of segments, 40:115:80:missing: 

 missing (compared with type specimen) or as taken from China's 



