208 
IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 
Broadly oval, with a narrow, annulate head; deep brown to black with 
the margins of the vertex, a transverse band across the middle of the pro- 
notum and two across the elytra, red or orange, length 8-10 mm. ; width on 
elytra 5 mm.; vertex broad, depressed two-thirds the length of the pronotum, 
obtusely angulate, disc sloping, depressed either side the longitudinal 
Carina; front inflated, nearly right angled with the vertex, a single strong 
median carina; rostrum short, scarcely as long as the front; pronotum, disc 
convex, one-third wider than long, anterior margin straight, posterior 
margin roundingly emarginate; elytra convex, coriaceous, over twice 
longer than wide, much broader than pronotum, outer margins curved, 
apex broadly rounding; venation obscure, apically reticulate. 
Color, dark-chestnut brown to black; a narrow margin all round the 
vertex and along the median carina, the eyes and ocelli and the lateral 
margins of the pronotum red; a narrow transverse band across the humeral 
angles of the pronotum and two slightly wider ones parallel with this, 
dividing the elytra into three equal portions, red or orange. 
Habitat: Specimens are at hand from New York, Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut, Maryland, District of Columbia, North Caro- 
lina West Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, 
and Iowa within our territory, and from Cuba and Mexico from 
without. It has been reported from Pennsylvania, Askansas, 
and Georgia, and from Mexico, Jamaica, and several Central 
American states. It is a very common species in collections 
from Mexico and the West Indies. In the United States it 
occurs along the Atlantic slope from New York and Massachu- 
setts south, throughout the gulf states and up the Mississippi 
valley as far as central Iowa, where it is extremely rare. 
This is a somewhat variable species in size, and extremely 
so in color markings. These forms intergrade and can only 
be roughly divided as follows: 
Form bicincta, the typical one, is dark brown with narrow, red bands. 
Var. ignipecta Pitch, is the dark form where the bands are partly or 
entirely wanting. 
Var. simulans Walk., has the bands broader, and creamy yellow in 
color. 
Fowler was evidently misled in placing this species, by 
Say’s remark that Mcincta resembled rubra and sororia. It is 
very likely that those were the only two species that Say was 
acquainted with, or, at least, the nearest to his species of any 
that he knew; at any rate, the difference in the front, as 
shown by Fowler’s figures, at once places it with simulans and 
not with rubra^ and verifies StaPs observation fasGiaticollis 
was “close” to bicincta. Walker says of inferans that it 
closely resembles, and may be a local variety of neglecta. 
