May, 1910. Notes on Some Clerid^ — Wolcott. 381 



Pyticera humeralis Horn. 



Enoplium hunterale Horn., Trans. Amer. Ent. See, 11, 1868, p. 135 ; 

 Gorh., Trans. Ent. Soc. London, xxv, 1877, p. 426; Horn, 

 Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, x, 1883, p. 289. 



Pelonium militare Chevr., Rev. et Mag. Zool., 1874, p. 234; 

 Horn, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, v, 1875, p. 149; Chevr., M^m- 

 oire, 1876, p. 48. 



Pyticera militare, Gorh., Biol. Centr.-Amer., in, Pt. 2, 1882, p. 184. 



This is an exceedingly variable species in respect to elytral colora- 

 tion. In the type the shoulders, including all the space anterior to 

 an oblique line drawn from near the scutellum to a point on the 

 flanks slightly behind the middle, are yellow. Chevrolat's specimen 

 was similarly colored. A female specimen from the Santa Rita Mts., 

 Arizona, 5,000-8,000 ft. el. (Snow), differs from the type in having 

 the elytra entirely black and being slightly smaller, .20 inch (=5 mm.) ; 

 Horn's type was described as .24 inch (= 6 mm.) in length; Chev- 

 rolat's specimen as 10 mm. (= .40 inch). A specimen from Oak 

 Creek Canyon, Arizona, given the writer by the late Dr. F. H. Snow, 

 is .21 inch (= 5.25 mm.) in length and in elytral color goes nearly to 

 the other extreme, being entirely red except the apical fourth which 

 is black, the red color extending broadly into the black at flanks and 

 suture. In both specimens the thoracic markings are as in the type, 

 except that the color at flanks is red, not yellow. 



Occurs in New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico. 



The genus Pyticera of Spinola is distinguished from Enoplium 

 Latreille by the fact that the tarsi, when viewed from above, are 

 distinctly four-jointed, whereas in the latter genus they are appar- 

 ently three-jointed, the basal joint being concealed from above. 

 Lacordaire (Gen. Col., iv, p. 477) united Pyticera with Platynoptera 

 Chevrolat, the two genera, however, are distinct: in Pyticera the 

 antennae have ten joints, the short, transverse joints beginning with 

 the third or fourth and the elytra are ovate. Platynoptera has 11- 

 jointed antennae, joints two to eight being short, transverse, compact, 

 and pilose, and the elytra are "vs'idened behind. These two genera 

 are now recognized as valid by such eminent authorities as Rev. 

 H. S. Gorham, Sigmimd Schenkling, and Reinhard Lohde. An ex- 

 amination of the tarsi of humeralis and also of Efwplium quadri- 

 punctatum leaves no room for doubt as to their belonging to Pyticera, 

 since four joints of each tarsus are easily discernible from above. 



Spinola (Mon. Cl^r., 11, p. 69), and Lacordaire (Gen. Col., iv, p. 

 478), describe the antennae as nine-jointed; Gorham (Biol. Centr.- 



