106 
Psyche 
[Sept. 
cality of impressifrons are composed of specimens which 
seem most closely related to that species but which dif- 
fer in several characters ordinarily of importance in the 
group. The variation is continuous enough that all 
should he included in impressifrons but isolated samples 
often have a distinctly different aspect. 
First there is a striking difference in size and more 
or less correlated with it a difference in pubescence, the 
larger specimens having it much denser. Also more or 
less correlated with the denser pubescence is the pres- 
ence of the midventral, lateral and dorsal black abdom- 
inal markings and scutellar and humeral spots charac- 
teristic of the caviceps group to which impressifrons be- 
longs. 
One lot of eight specimens from Whitewater has mid- 
ventral spots in both males and females. Another se- 
ries of 25, from Morongo Valley, collected by G. P. 
Mackenzie, has these spots in the male but not in the 
female even though some are as large as the Whitewa- 
ter females. This series has sparser pubescence than 
the Whitewater lot. Other smaller lots from several 
localities are similar to the Morongo Valley set. 
The distribution of the species seems to follow a def- 
inite northwest-southeast line, from Cajon Pass in San 
Bernardino Co. to Fish Springs on the Salton Sea. It 
has been taken most abundantly in the vicinity of Palm 
Springs in Riverside Co., at Whitewater, Cabazon, Mo- 
rongo Valley and Indio, all within twenty miles map dis- 
tance from Palm Springs, in the Coachella Valley. 
Epicauta occipitalis sp. n. 
Length: 8 to 11 mm. Black, densely clothed with yel- 
low-cinereous to light rufous pubescence, which is dark- 
er above than below. Disc of pronotum with dense 
short, erect pubescence, not denuded anteriorly as in di- 
ver sipubescens Mayd. Elytra usually with a small 
black scutellar spot. Denuded spots on the midline of 
the abdominal sternites in the male. Middle and hind 
femora of male flattened behind, denuded and with a 
margin of long hairs above. Head bulging at the oc- 
ciput, the bulge not split by a deepened midline. 
