1950] 
Blake — Flea Beetles 
11 
a number of other beetles with aedeagi that are widely unlike 
any other and that cannot be grouped with the rest or with 
each other. When I consider the relatively small number of 
specimens I have before me and the possibilities in the way of 
those that may be collected later in the West Indies, I realize 
how small a contribution to the genus I am able to give in m} r 
analysis of the few species (17) that I have studied. No one 
can distinguish these beetles from mere outward examination. 
Furthermore, it is not possible at present to identify Suffrian’s 
two species with any degree of certainty. Even if the types are 
still in existence in the Museum at Halle, there is no certainty 
that any males are in the lot. Since the Gundlach collection of 
insects in Cuba, which contains specimens identified by Suffrian, 
is kept strictly under glass, little can be learned from it. 
Maulik writes of Aphthona, “the genus being artificial is very 
difficult to define.” Possibly he means that so many diverse 
species from all over the world are included under Aphthona 
that of necessity the group is far from homogeneous. It is true 
that the American species pigeon-holed with Aphthona do not 
altogether fit into the description of the European or Asiatic 
ones. For one thing, the elytra in many are striatelv punctate 
instead of confusedly punctate. Crotch described insolita Melsh., 
which is now referred to Aphthona, under the genus Ceratal- 
tica, as subquadrate in shape and striate-punctate. On the 
other hand, some of the species of Aphthona that Jacoby de- 
scribed from Central America seem closer to Jacoby’s genus 
Palaeotliona, which he described as “rather depressed, elongate 
and posteriorly widened,” and with longer antennae and more 
transverse thorax. All these species need more study in order 
to determine their proper relationships. The West Indian group 
is unlike any of those that I have examined from the North 
American continent. In shape the beetles are generally broader 
and more convex than in Palaeotliona and not at all subquad- 
rate nor with striately punctate elytra as in the species related 
to insolita Melsh. The hind tibia, contrary to Suffrian’s state- 
ment, is not like that in the European species of Aphthona, 
being rounded, not flat, and having a spur at the tip in the 
middle, not on the outside, and the claws are appendiculate, not 
