A/n A/ 



North American Rhynchophora, 229 



X.\l.—On Some Netu North American Rhynchoph(^^^^^^^ '^^//^ 

 PART I. 



BY THOS. L. CASEY. 

 Read, by Title, AprU 9th, 1888. 



During the three years just past, the writer, whose official du- 

 ties had previously called him to the Pacific slope of our con- 

 tinent, has utilized his spare moments in the endeavor to 

 amass as complete a set of the Coleoptera of those regions as lay 

 within his power. Many portions of California, Nevada, Arizona 

 and Texas were explored by himself in person, and other regions 

 have contributed through the skillful collecting of Dr. K. W. 

 Shufeldt of the United States Army, near Fort Wingate, New 

 Mexico, and Mr. Gr. W. Dunn at El Paso, Texas, and Benson, 

 Arizona. He cannot fail also to express his obligations to 

 Mr. W, a. W. Harford and Mr. 0. Fuchs, of Oakland, Oal., 

 for many valuable additions. 



The total number of species thus brought together and safely 

 transported across the continent, amounts to about three thousand 

 five or six hundred, and their identification and incorporation 

 with the others is a labor of great weight, rendered doubly diffi- 

 cult by the very large proportion of un described forms. It has 

 been my special aim to obtain as large a series as possible of every 

 species, for the purpose of studying variation, and these series 

 have already proved one of the greatest aids in estimating the 

 validity of closely allied forms. Species of some genera, which 

 were thought to be very unstable and arbitrary, because of the 

 isolated specimens from different regions which have hitherto 

 been their sole representatives, are, by these fuller series, shown 

 to be far less so, and they seem to indicate that there are many 

 species, differing among themselves in purely external character- 

 istics of form or sculpture, which are as valid as others differing 

 in those modifications of special organs which have been selected 

 as the criteria for specific distinction. Such a genus is Pteros- 

 tichus, containing a great many apparently valid species which 



ANNALS N. Y. ACAD. OF SCI., IV. Issued August, 1888. 



