160 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.87 



elytra are minute, and those of the subsutural series usually coalesce, 

 forming a narrow, abbreviated line; the humeri are prominent and 

 marked with a larger black spot. 



In the LeConte collection is a series of five specimens all labeled 

 "N. M.," the one bearing the label debilis being a male with toothed 

 claws. It also bears the Museum of Comparative Zoology type 

 No. 4385. Of the remaining four, two are males .and at least one is a 

 female with simple claws. Three of these four are without doubt the 

 same species as the first, but one, a male, which is slenderer and less 

 densely punctate and pubescent, belongs to a different species. It is 

 probable that LeConte did not have before him this entire series when 

 writing his description, since one, a female, does not answer his 

 description of the species as having toothed claws, and another one, 

 with sparser pubescence, is obviously unlike his description (see 

 p. 166). The one bearing the label and the two males like it are 

 similar in coloring. The female has darker markings — the pro thorax 

 has two lateral spots and a median streak uniting anteriorly to form 

 an M -shaped figure, and the elytra have the suture dark and the spots 

 coalescing in places to form interrupted vittae, and the under surface 

 is nearly dark with the exception of the last abdominal segments. In 

 the paler male specimens the prothorax is unmarked or only faintly 

 marked, the elytra have less continuous spots, and the mesosternum, 

 metasternum, and first abdominal segments are in part darkened. 

 The head in all four is without prominences; the median line is not 

 much impressed; the pubescence is dense but not long and covers 

 the occipital punctation; the color is pale, deepening on the occiput, 

 but the labrum and median line are dark. The antennae have 

 slightly darker reddish-brown and thicker outer joints. The pro- 

 thorax has well-rounded sides and is not greatly depressed in the 

 middle and on the sides; the basal tooth is small; the pubescence is 

 dense but not long, obscuring the dense punctation beneath. The 

 elytra are convex with only a short intrahumeral depression and have 

 deep and coarse but distinct and not confluent punctures, becoming 

 finer and shallower at the apex. The pubescence is conspicuous in 

 being moderately dense and of a pale silvery color, but not long. 



LeConte's Latin description of obtusa may be translated thus: 

 Testaceous, with pale pubescence, the prothorax strongly and densely 

 punctate, less than twice as broad as long, with the sides rounded, the 

 posterior angles obtuse, with a small tooth at the apex, the disk 

 canaliculate and on both sides widely impressed; the elytra densely 

 punctate, the punctures stronger anteriorly; the outer edge of the 

 antennae and the breast and abdomen infuscate. Length 0.20 inch. 

 He based his description on three specimens, one from Andover, 

 Mass. (Mr. Sanborn), and two from Kansas. He distinguished 

 obtusa from angvlaris by the angles of the prothorax not being promi- 



