A NEW SPECIES OF MYRMECOPHILOUS 
COCCINELLIDAE, WITH NOTES ON OTHER 
HYPERASPINI (COLEOPTERA)* 
By Edward A. Chapin 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 
During the past few years, Professor Daniel H. Janzen of the 
Department of Entomology of Kansas University has worked during 
the summers in Mexico and Central America on a project dealing 
with the relation of ants of the genus Pseudomyrmex to species of 
the thorn-bearing plants of the genus Acacia. In the course of the 
work larvae and pupae of a coccinellid were found inhabiting some 
of the hollowed spines abandoned by the ants. Two adult beetles 
were reared and sent to me for study. These proved to be the same 
species as two specimens collected in Mexico by Mr. N. L. H. Krauss 
which had been set aside as undescribed in my collection. As the 
species is so unlike in form from other hyperaspines known to me, 
the genus was not immediately recognizable. After dissection and 
preparation of the necessary slides, the species was found to be nearest 
to Hyperaspis and has been so assigned here. Hyperaspis is certainly 
composite as it now stands in the Korschefsky catalog and merits 
serious study by one who has adequate material at his disposal. 
Myrmecophiles of the tribe Hyperaspini are already known from 
both hemispheres. J. B. Smith (1886) reported the presence of larvae 
of Brachyacantha ursina (Fabricius) in ants’ nests and E. A. 
Schwarz (1890) reported that same species as abundant near Wash- 
ington, D. C. in colonies of Lasius claviger Roger. F. Silvestri 
(1903) found Llyperaspis reppensis (Herbst) in the vicinity of 
Napoli, Italy in the nests of Tapinoma erraticum nigerrimum Ny- 
lander. W. M. Wheeler (1911) summed up what was known of 
myrmecophilous Coccinellidae and recorded the finding of Brachya- 
cantha quadripunctata (Melsh.) from the nests of Lasius umbratus 
var. aphidicola Walsh at Great Blue Hill, Massachusetts. It is 
quite possible that the B. ursina of Smith and Schwarz is actually 
B. quadripunctata. 
The genera composing the tribe Hyperaspini, as listed in the Junk- 
Korschefsky catalog 1931, fall into one or the other of two divisions 
which are based on the structure of the male and female genitalia. 
The first division within the tribe is composed of the genera Brachya- 
*Published with the aid of a grant from the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology. 
Manuscript received by the editor November 16, 1966. 
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