106 STUDIES IN NORTH AMERICAN MEMBRACIDjE 



other genera founded entirely on the form of the pronotum. 

 They might perhaps with propriety be reduced to the position 

 of subgenera but that is an awkward arrangement that I think 

 should be avoided when possible. Genera are not and never 

 can be of equal rank and if by their use we can make our syn- 

 optical tables more comprehensible and our cabinet arrange- 

 ment more natural I believe such use is justified. At any rate 

 a tentative study like the present is no place to submerge such 

 genera. 



Dorsum straight or feebly arcuated, scarcely if at all sinuated; 

 form more slender, 3, modest a Uhler. 



Dorsum more elevated, obviously sinuated, 1. 



1. Sides of the pronotum with longitudinal rugae which be- 

 come more or less reticulated along the dorsum, 



1, concava Say. 



-. Rugae of the pronotum strong, irregularly reticulated over 

 its whole surface, 2, reticulata VanD 



1. Publilia concava Say. 



A common and widely distributed species. In the female 

 the dorsal carina is distinctly elevated at the highest point of 

 the pronotum above the humeri, which is not the case in the 

 male. The carinate lines on the pronotum run straight and 

 parallel along the sides where they rarely fork, but anteriorly 

 and along the dorsum they become more or less reticulated. 

 The anterior edge of the head is almost rectilinear for a space 

 next the eye then rounded about the apex, with the clypeus a 

 little prominent. This species appears to have been redescribed 

 as Publilia grisea by Buckton. 



1. Publilia concava var. nigridorsum Goding. 



This was described as a distinct species but it certainly is 

 but a color variety of concava. It is black with the side of the 

 pronotum broadly testaceous, In the large number of examples 

 of this variety I have examined the only variation is in the 

 width of the dorsal band. The characters of the head and 

 pronotum are exactly those of concava, 



2. Publilia reticulata n. sp. PI. 1, fig. 5. 



Closely allied to concava but with the surface of the pronotum retic- 

 ulated with strong anastomosing rugae in place of the four or five simple 



