1913] 95 



One specimen. This insect bears an extraordinary close relationship 

 to P. nigripennis Champ. ( ^ only known), from the Pacific slope of 

 Guatemala, and is of the same size and colour, being separable therefrom 

 bv the following characters only: antenn;ie longer and more slender, eyes 

 a little smaller and more convex, tibiae sti-aigiiter and nan'ower, and tarsi 

 more elongate. The mandibles in the present species are curved, sharply 

 pointed, and armed with two very short teeth towards the base within. 

 The presence of such closely allied forms in very widely separated regions 

 affords a good example of the difficulties encountered in dealing with 

 geographical distribution. The three recorded species of the genus — two 

 from Guatemala and one from the St. Vincent, in the Lesser Antilles * — 

 are known from single examples only, and they therefore must be rare 

 insects. 



Ora Chirk. 



If the name Ora Clark is to be retained for the forms with simple 

 posterior coxae {i. e. without angular plate extending over the inner basal 

 portion, this 2)late being well developed in the type of Scirfes, hemi- 

 sphnericus L.), his second species, O. troherti Guer. {= chevrolati 

 Clark), must be taken as the type, the first species, O. grayii Clark 

 (^=:sexmaculatus Pic), being a true Sch^tes. This course was followed 

 by myself in the " Biologia," in 1897, but at that time a detailed 

 examination of 0. grayii had not been made by me. The species are 

 numerous in tropical regions generall}^, and some of them have broadly 

 expanded margins to the elytra, suggestive of Cassida ; and, as in 

 Scirtes, very similar forms are found in widelj^-separated geographical 

 regions. The bifoveate head is characteristic of many members of the 

 present genus. The Bolivian Scyrtes ligneus Blanch, belongs to Ora as 

 here recognized. 



Tropical Ameeicax Species. 



1. — Ora iriradiata, n. sp. 



Elonoate-oval, depressed, very shining, glabrous above (? abraded) ; the 

 head, palpi, antennae (the rufo-piceous joints 1-3 excepted), and scutelliim 

 black, the prothorax testaceons ; the elytra fiavous, with a sinuous stripe near 

 the inner margin (coalescent with the one on the opposite elytron towards the 

 apex, and then continued narrowly along the suture to the apical margin) and 

 three oblong, laterally-connected patches placed one behind the other near the 

 outer margin, black ; the under surface, the prothorax excepted, in great part 

 piceous ; the tibiae (the spurs excepted) and joints 1-4 of the tarsi nigro- 

 piceous or black, the femora and the rest of the legs testaceous ; closely, finely 



* Trans, l.'iil. Sot-. Loud. 1^'."7, )>. 2\\\. 



