208 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Broadly oval, with a narrow, angulate head; deep brown to black with 

 the margins of the vertex, a transverse band across the middle of the pro- 

 notum and two across the elytra, red or orange, length 8-10 mm.; width on 

 elytra mm.; vertex broad, depressed two-thirds the length of thepronotum, 

 obtusely angulate, disc sloping, depressed either side the longitudinal 

 carina; front inflated, nearly right angled with the vertex, a single strong 

 median carina; rostrum short, scarcely as long as the front; pronotum, disc 

 convex, one-third wider than long, anterior margin straight, posterior 

 margin roundingly emarginate; elytra convex, coriaceous, over twice 

 longer than wide, much broader than pronotum, outer margins curved, 

 apex broadly rounding; venation obscure, apically reticulate. 



Color, dark-chestnut brown to black; a narrow margin all round the 

 vertex and along the median carina, the eyps and ocelli and the lateral 

 margins of the pronotum red; a narrow transverse band across the humeral 

 angles of the pronotum and two slightly wider ones parallel with this, 

 dividing the elytra into three equal portions, red or orange. 



Habitat: Specimens are at handfrom New York, Massachu- 

 setts, Connecticut, Maryland, District of Columbia, North Caro- 

 lina West Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, 

 and Iowa within our territory, and from Cuba and Mexico from 

 without. It has been reported from Pennsylvania, Askansas, 

 and Georgia, and from Mexico, Jamaica, and several Central 

 American states. It is a very common species in collections 

 from Mexico and the West Indies. In the United States it 

 occurs along the Atlantic slope from New York and Massachu- 

 setts south, throughout the gulf states and up the Mississippi 

 valley as far as central Iowa, where it is extremely rare. 



This is a somewhat variable species in size, and extremely 

 so in color markings. These forms intergrade and can only 

 be roughly divided as follows: 



O Form hicincta, the typical one, is dark brown with narrow, red bands. 



O Var. ignipecta Fitch, is the dark form where the bands are partly or 



entirely wanting. 



C Var. simulans Walk., has the bands broader, and creamy yellow in 



color. 



Fowler was evidently misled in placing this species, by 

 Say's remark thatr 6icmcia resembled rubra Sbud^'sororia. It is 

 very likely that those were the only two species that Say was 

 acquainted with, or, at least, the nearest to his species of any 

 that he knew; at any rate, the difference in the front, as 

 shown by Fowler's figures, at once places it with' simulans and 

 not with'rubra, and verifies Stal's observation that /ascia^icoZZis 

 was "close" to^ hicincta. Walker says of^ m/er«?i.s that it 

 closely resembles, and may be a local variety of neglecta. 



