

Mar., '06] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 73 



typical : ' ' male with a small feeble rounded impression at the 

 apex of the fifth ventral, the apex broadly and feebly sinuato- 

 truncate ; sixth segment with a large triangular emargination 

 at tip, generally not quite a third as wide as the apex and 

 nearly as deep as wide, the surface narrowly elevated along 

 the median line toward the notch, the ridge clothed with short 

 stiff black spicules, some of the latter also present at the apices 

 of the segment at each side of the notch" (Casey). The 

 specimen figured was taken at L,eona Heights, Alameda Co. , 

 California. 



Figure 5 of the plate is taken from what I have found as 

 the most common species : ' ' Male with a small unimpressed 

 glabrous area at the middle at apex of the fifth ventral, the 

 sixth with a triangular impression, the apex broadly, para- 

 bolically sinuate" (Casey). It is undoubtedly a jacobina 

 Lee. By the figure it will be seen that the triangular impres- 

 sion of the sixth ventral is clothed with short and minute 

 spicules, and that they do not quite reach the margin. Casey 

 does not mention this fact, and leaves the student in doubt. I 

 have not seen any other form that I could refer to jacobina, 

 and I have examined a large series taken in Alameda, San 

 Francisco, Calaveras and Eldorado Counties. 



Figure 6 gives a form found at San Diego, and appears re- 

 lated to relicta Casey. " Male with a small and very faint oval 

 impression at the apex of the fifth ventral, the sixth with a 

 broadly parabolic, shallow, gradually formed apical sinus, 

 about a third as wide as the segment, and six times as wide 

 as deep, the surface adjoining extremely feebly impressed, the 

 impression having a small patch of black spicules anteriorly." 

 (Casey) If this is relicta it appears as a less strongly devel- 

 oped form of jacobina. I find the secondary sexual characters 

 variable. I have figured three distinct forms and each must 

 vary considerably, and by experiments in heredity might 

 prove to be dominant or recessive forms, as the case might be. 

 Let students obtain a hundred specimens to each one they 

 now collect for a cabinet set, and let them record variations. 

 It will prove interesting and valuable. 



The following two species of Dasytes belong to that section 



