52 
Psyche 
[June 
mens in which the same area is dark. The more con- 
spicuous they are, the easier it is to imagine that they 
are more nearly serially arranged. The distinction is, 
at best, a subtle one. 
An examination of the genitalia of the males indicates 
that four, not three, very different species occur in the 
United States, of which impressulus alone is externally 
distinct. Even this last species is not always very obvious. 
Specimens of all four vary from pale, through dark with 
the base of the elytra pale, to all dark. 
A nomenclatorial problem immediately presents itself. 
Both Say and La Ferte very obviously described species 
of Tomoderus. Say’s type specimens have certainly been 
lost. La Ferte’s type series of five specimens may still 
remain in his collection and he mentions a dozen more in 
the Dejean collection, sent by LeConte. There is every 
chance that these series are mixed and it would be neces- 
sary to dissect any males and decide on one as a lectotype. 
Both the La Ferte and the Dejean collection are under the 
care of the Paris Museum and such an examination is 
not possible without a visit there. 
I have therefore decided to assign the names constrictus 
and interruptus to our two most abundant species, without 
formal designation of neotype and lectotype respectively. 
If there are any males in La Ferte’s series, and the species 
here associated with the name is not represented, it will 
be within the province of a future investigator to reassign 
the name interruptus. The same might also be said of 
bilobus, a Dejean manuscript name mentioned by La 
Ferte as a color variety of interruptus. Constrictus was 
described without mention of type locality. Since Say 
spent more time in Indiana and Pennsylvania than in the 
South, and since he mentions the locality of other species 
described in the same paper as having been collected on 
special trips, the choice made here is consistent with the 
possible type locality. The species chosen is the abundant 
one in the Middle Atlantic States and the Midwest. Inter- 
ruptus was described from specimens collected in Texas 
by Pilate. Very few specimens of Tomoderus have been 
seen from Texas and both constrictus and interruptus in 
