284 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol. IV r 



given for melanopleura except that the basal marking is on the 

 average somewhat smaller and is, in rare cases, even absent. 

 The lateral black spot also is absent in an unusually albinic 

 form , Figure F , Plate XIX. Elytra reddish yellow, usually light er 

 than melanopleura, quite yellowish for several weeks after 

 emergence, becoming redder with age, though some never 

 develop much of the red color. In the individuals reared of the 

 more albinic form, Figure F, Plate XIX, the red color began to 

 appear immediately after emergence but was paler in the region 

 of the spots, giving a sort of blotchy appearance. This paler 

 area may persist even in old beetles which have hibernated. 

 Each elytron typically with a longitudinal posteriorly pointed 

 black dash from the base at each side of the suture, and two 

 sub-basal spots, the outer more basal, also with a transverse 

 series of three black spots just before the middle, and two more 

 at apical fourth, the outer very close to the margin. These 

 black spots may vary from mere dots with some absent, to 

 large blotches which may have more or less tendency to con- 

 fluence; so that in color pattern many resembled ovipennis 

 Casey, and a very few came very close to transversalis Casey 

 as figured by Johnson.* Mr. Casey, however, to whom I sub- 

 mitted specimens of these beetles, says that they are not his 

 species as they do not show the proper punctuation. Some 

 specimens show a rather definite pattern of red spots, two on 

 each elytron, one a large oblong spot at the humerus and the 

 other a smaller round spot close to the suture and between the 

 middle and apical series of black spots. Legs and size as in 

 melanopleura. 



In the more albinic form, Figure F, Plate XIX, the anterior 

 spots were always lacking and the middle and apical scries 

 were irregularly represented. Altogether this form differs from 

 the rest of the group in three respects; namely, in lacking the 

 anterior or basal elytral black spots, the absence of the lateral 

 black spots on the pronotum, and in the presence of the redder 

 coloration of the elytra. Three individuals of this form 

 appeared in one batch of annectans, and one in another batch of 

 annectans, also two from a batch of larvae, from melanopleura 

 parents, which produced both melanopleura and annectans. In 

 these broods there were also some individuals which might be 



* Johnson, Roswell H., -1910 — Determinate Evolution in the Color Pattern 

 of the Lady-beetles, Carnegie Institution of Washington. Pub. No. 122. 

 Papers of the Station for Experimental Evolution, No. 15. 



