3o8 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [December, 



the last ventral segment is asymmetrically emarginate ; the female with 

 the sides of the abdomen conspicuously pubescent anteriorly, the last 

 three segments glabrous. 



In the attempt to determine the status of the species above 

 described, some facts were noted which appear to have a bear- 

 ing on the relationship of certain allied forms, and which it 

 would seem proper to record at this time. There has been 

 manifest for some time a growing dissatisfaction with the 

 Schauppian treatment of the family, upon which our present 

 lists are based, and there is a general and, I think, well 

 founded belief that a considerable number of the forms there 

 recorded as varieties are really distinct species. Probably no 

 experienced coleopterist now believes patruela to be a variety 

 of sexguttata, or that 12-guttata is a variety of repanda. Some 

 years ago I gave reasons why venusta should be restored to 

 specific standing, and since then willistoni^ tenuicinda, saulcyi, 

 imperfecta and several others have been claimed to be good 

 species by one w^riter or another. 



Granting that repanda is quite distinct from its so-called 

 varieties, 12-guttata, oregona and giittifera, what, then, is the 

 relation of these varieties to one another ? They are certainly 

 strikingly similar in facies, and are, I think, generally held to 

 constitute but a single species. This, until lately, was my 

 own belief ; but a recent study of many examples has con- 

 vinced me that we must go a step further and regard 12-guttata 

 and orego7ia as distinct though closely-allied species, and that 

 guttifera is practically identical with oregona, and not worthy 

 of even varietal standing. 



If a series of 12-guttata be carefully compared with one of 

 oreg07ia, it will be observed that in the latter the elytra are 

 relatively slightly shorter and more dilated. In 12-guttata the 

 thorax is distinctly narrowed behind in both sexes ; in oregoyia 

 the sides are a little less convergent behind in the male and 

 distinctly less so in the female. In 12-guttata the middle band 

 of the elytra is frequently dilated on the margin ; in oregona 

 never so. In 12-guttata the front is pilose, and there are three 

 or four setigerous punctures within the emargination of the 

 eye ; in oregona the front is glabrous, there being only a group 

 of eight to ten setae each side near the inner angle of the eye, 



