NOTES ON THE RHINOTRAGINE BEETLES OF THE 

 FAMILY CERAMBYCIDAE, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF 

 NEW SPECIES 



By W. S. Fisher 

 Of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 



In rearranging the material of this tribe in the United States 

 National Museum collection, it is necessary to describe a number of 

 new forms, and it seems also necessary to record some of the notes 

 which have accumulated with the specimens in the collection. 



This tribe contains quite a number of species and genera which are 

 confined to tropical America. They are remarkable both for their 

 generally abbreviated elytra, although this is not an essential char- 

 acter for distinguishing the tribe, and for the mimetic resemblance 

 that many of the species bear to Hymenoptera and other Coleoptera. 

 Although the species are not great favorites with the systematist on 

 account of the difficulty of separating the genera, they are full of in- 

 terest to the general entomologist, because of their mimicry and the 

 many fine illustrations they offer of the mode in which divergent 

 modifications occur in nature. For example, it is most interesting to 

 observe in forms so closely allied that while some species have rudi- 

 mentary elytra and wasplike bodies or beelike posterior tibiae, such 

 as the species of Odontocera^ Tomopterus^ Epimelitta^ etc., others 

 have the elytra developed to the opposite extreme, and, aided by their 

 general aspects and colors, become analogous to other Coleoptera, 

 such as Oxylymma resembling the Galerucinae, the Erythroflatys 

 the Hispinae, and the Ornistomus various species of Lycidae. 



If we believe in the origin of species by natural variation and selec- 

 tion, the species of Rhinotragini have varied in many directions, and 

 since a protective disguise of one kind or another was necessary to 

 the species, these variations have been gradually extended in many 

 directions to mimic some species which it was advantageous to re- 

 semble. In some of the very closely allied species the most abrupt 

 changes are seen, as for instance, between Odontocera fasciata Olivier 

 (which resembles a wasp) and Odontocera covi'pressi'pes White 



No. 2842.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 77, Art. 19 



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