OCR Text |
Show 1879.] PHYTOPHAGOUS COLEOPTERA. 791 ceding species, black. Thorax transverse, widened in the middle, the base contracted ; surface minutely punctured, yellowish white, with an indistinct longitudinal fuscous line in the middle, sometimes entirely absent. Elytra rather convex, almost subcylindrical, scarcely more distinctly punctured than the thorax ; two small spots, one of which is placed before, the other behind the middle, near the sutural, and a third spot between the two, near the lateral margin of each elytron, black. Underside fuscous or dark ferruginous, more or less stained with black. Legs flavous, base of the femora as well as the apex of the tibiae and tarsi more or less black. In the specimens which I take to be male, there is the same deep fovea near the lateral margin; but the latter itself is not interrupted as in the preceding species, and the internal tooth is not isolated, but connected with the sides of the fovea in the shape of a convex ridge. Claws appendiculate. 35. DIABROTICA IMITANS, sp. nov. Oblong-ovate, dilated posteriorly. Black, base of head and the thorax fulvous ; antennae (their apex excepted), legs, and elytra bright flavous, the latter with four basal spots and two broad transverse bands black. Var. The basal spots on the elytra united in the form of a third transverse band. Length 3 lines. Hab. Venezuela. Lower part of face deeply excavated ( o*), shining black, vertex and sides of face fulvous, the former with a few small punctures ; basal joint of the antennae very long and slender, as long as the fourth, second joint less than half the size of the third, first five or six joints flavous, the rest piceous. Thorax subquadrate, the hinder angles oblique, sides armed with a small tubercle at each side below the anterior angles ; surface obsoletely transversely depressed, minutely punctured. Scutellum black. Elytra wider than the thorax, much dilated behind the middle, convex, deeply punctured, the interstices obsoletely rugose; flavous, two elongate spots at the base of each elytron (in the variety united into a band), a transverse regular band at the middle not touching the lateral margin, and another wider one near the apex black. In the female the deep excavation of the head is wanting, and the fulvous colour extends much lower down, This species is at once distinguished from D. ventricosa, Jacoby (to which it is nearly allied in colouring), by the flavous margination of the elytra. 36. DIABROTICA FENESTRALIS, sp. nov. Elongate, subparallel. Flavous ; head, legs, and breast black ; elytra flavous or testaceous, with the lateral and sutural margins and three transverse narrow bands, the first of which is connected with the second by a short lateral stripe, piceous. Length 3 lines. Hab. Chontales, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. R O C ZOOL. Soc-1879, No. LI. 51 |