EPICAUTA DUGESI A VALID SPECIES 
(COLEOPTERA: MELOIDAE) 
By F. G. Werner 
University of Arizona, Tucson 
Some small samples of Epicauta from the states of 
Nayarit and Sinaloa in Mexico apparently represent the 
species described by Duges from San Potosi as E. vittata 
and designated as E. dugesi by Beauregard. A single 
specimen, probably a female, remains from the Duges series 
in the collection of the Instituto de Biologia in Mexico City. 
Champion did not see any specimens from Mexico but de- 
cided that Duges had lemniscata (Fab.) from his descrip- 
tion. Dugesi has remained in synonymy with that species 
ever since. 
The male of dugesi differs in several features from the 
species most closely related to it, vittata (Fab.), lemniscata 
(Fab), occidentalis Werner and vitticollis (Haag). All 
of these have the pad of protarsal segment I of the male 
slightly heavier than in the female, covering the ventral 
surface of the segment and extending onto the ventral third 
to half of the posterior surface. In the male of dugesi 
the pad is highly developed, covering the ventral surface 
and extending over all of the posterior surface except for a 
very small area dorsally at the base, and is much different 
from the simple pad of the female. The succeeding protarsal 
segments reflect the condition of the first in all these species. 
Protarsal segment I is thicker, slightly broader and propor- 
tionately shorter in dugesi than it is in the other species ; it 
differs radically from the first segment in occidentalis be- 
cause that species has all the segments of the protarsi much 
more slender than they are in the others. A further differ- 
ence is that the inner (anterior) protibial spur of the male 
of dugesi is definitely curved, while it is straight or nearly 
so in the others. Both sexes of dugesi have the head more 
deeply punctured than the other species, with less of an in- 
dication of a median smooth area on the front. The mark- 
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