696 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 
PINE. ROOT. 
Beauvois described the male as a distinct species under the 
name squamiger ; and Burmeister has given the male of our other 
American species (the Channel-necked, Valgus canaiiculatus, 
Fab.) as being the male of squamiger, and the male of this spe¬ 
cies as its female, retaining the female of this as the true seticollis. 
This will serve to show the reader some of the embarrassments 
which are frequently besetting ones’ path in investigating this 
branch of nature’s works. At length M. Zimmerman having 
met with two of these beetles paired, M. Schaum was enabled 
from these specimens to see this subject in its true light and disen¬ 
tangle it from the confusion in which it was involved. And 
now having myself found such a number of these beetles of both 
sexes, under circumstances which indicated them all to be the 
progeny of one parent, I am able to confirm the statements of 
M. Schaum. 
In addition to their color, M. Schaum states that the females 
differ from the males in being more long and thick ; but I am 
unable to discern any difference between the sexes in respect to 
their size. Several other characters, however, may be noticed, 
which serve to distinguish the sexes. In the male, when viewed 
laterally, the last segment of the abdomen declines much more 
nearly in a perpendicular direction than it does in the female. 
The inferior or hind edge of this segment has a slight concavity 
in its middle in the latter which does not occur in the former. 
Beneath, also, the penultimate segment of the abdomen in the 
male is scarcely double the length of that which precedes it, 
whilst in the other sex it is plainly much more than double the 
length of the same segment. The last segment also is longer in 
the female than in the male. In addition to this the second and 
sometimes the third segment commonly shows an impressed 
line lengthwise on its middle in the male, whilst in the female 
no traces of such a line occur. The teeth of the forward shanks 
are longer and stouter in the female than in the male. Of these 
teeth the middle one is the most prominent, and there is a wider 
interval between it and the next one forward of it than between 
the others. 
In connection with this, I may notice the following species 
which appears to be undescribed. 
