PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued B^*6vjV. Uy^l iy the 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 87 Waihington; 1939 No. 3072 



A STUDY OF LECONTE'S TYPES OF THE BEETLES IN THE 

 GENUS MONOXIA, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW 

 SPECIES 



By Doris Holmes Blake 



The genus Monoxia has been much neglected since its description by 

 LeConte in 1865. The only treatments are those of Crotch,^ who 

 was able to distinguish only four of LeConte 's six species, and of 

 Horn,'* who further reduced the original species to three and referred 

 to the genus a fourth {^uncticollis Say) belonging to a quite different 

 group of beetles, which in an earlier paper I have referred to the 

 genus Erynephala.^ Jacoby * added a species from Guatemala 

 (semifasciata), and Blatchley " one from Florida (batisii), Weise ^ 

 included in his Catalogue a doubtful Fabrician species (Galleruca 

 atomaria ') from "Caroline," and I have recently described a new 

 species (beebeiy from Lower California. 



In the mass of material of the genus that has gradually accumu- 

 lated in the U. S. National Museum, there has been little attempt to 

 arrange or identify the species. At first a revisional study of the 

 genus was planned, but as soon as the size of the undertaking and the 



> Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 25, p. 66, 1873. 



> Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vol. 20, p. 82, 1893. 



» Journ. Washington Acad. Sol., vol. 26, pp. 424-430, 1936. 



* Biologia Centrali-Americana, vol. 6, pt. 1, p. 497, 1887. 



• Can. Ent., vol. 39, p. 273, 1917. 



« Coleoptorum catalogus, pt. 78, p. 181, 1924. 



' Systema eleutheratorum . . ., vol. 1, p. 490, 1801. Fabricius described the prothorax of G. atomaria as 

 margined ("marginatus") and the elytra as smooth ("laevia"), and since no species of Monoxia has a pro- 

 thorax that can be interpreted by any feature of shape or color as margined, and all have the elytra pubes- 

 •cent, it seems improbable that this description could have applied to a species of Monoxia. 



8 Zoologica, vol. 22, pt. 1, pp. 89-91, 1937. 



149574—39 1 145 



