AKT. 19 ISTEW BEETLES OF THE FAMILY OEEAMBYCIDAE FISHER 1 1 



slender species, with the elytra long and only slightly dehiscent pos- 

 teriorly, in which respect it resembles some of the species of 

 Odontooera, but on account of the longitudinal elevations on the 

 pronotum it is placed in the genus Acyphoderes. In tlie series 

 examined scarcely any variation was observed in the color and 

 markings, but the females differ from the males in having the eyes 

 separated from each other on the front of the head by about one 

 and one-half times the width of the labrum, and the antennae are 

 slightly shorter. 



ACYPHODERES BAERI Gounelle 



Acyphoderes baeri Gouneille, Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. Paris, vol. 19, 1913, 

 pp. 222-224, fig. 



This species seems to be rather common and was described from a 

 large series of specimens from Argentine Republic, Paraguay, and 

 Brazil. Material has been examined by the writer from Bolivia 

 (locality not recorded), and the following localities in Argentine 

 Republic : Tucuman, collected during December, 1917, and January, 

 1918, by E.W. Rust, and from El Quemado, Jujuy, between March 

 and May, 1926, by G. L. Harrington. 



The species shows great variation in color and markings. The 

 typical form is uniformly black above, except for the vitreous areas 

 on the elytra, and this color varies to specimens in which the elytra 

 are reddish brown, and the pronotum black, with yellow vittae. 

 Gounelle ^ has described two of these aberrations in which the elytra 

 are reddish brown and -the pronotum ornamented with yellow vittae 

 under the names of flavonotata and hiannulata. In the material 

 collected by Harrington at El Quemado, the typical form, aberra- 

 tion hiannulata Gounelle, and a form with the elytra reddish brown 

 and the pronotum entirely black were found. E. W. Rust in a 

 letter writes of this species as follows : 



There are also a fly and a moth which resemble these beetles so closely that 

 you can scarcely tell the difference when collecting, and all resemble so closely 

 the wasp Megacantliopus ater Olivier that I never know which one is going 

 to sting me when I collect them. All four frequent the flowers of Baccharis 

 sp. on hot days, and the appearance, habits of flight, and the attitude of the 

 wings in repose or while walking over the flowers is almost identical in all 

 four cases. The beetle with the wings outspread is the nearly natural position 

 it assumes when feeding among the flowers. 



This species is frequently erroneously identified as jSphecomorpha 

 murina Klug, which it resembles very closely. It can, however, be 

 separated from that species in having the pronotum biimpressed 

 and the elytra gradually narrowed to the apices, each of which termi- 

 nates in an acute spine, whereas in murina the pronotum is strongly 



2 Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. Paris, vol. 19, 1913, pp. 223-224, figs. 1-4. 



