LEPYRUS ALTERNANS AND CAPUCINUS, LIXUS FOSSUS, CREMASTOCHILUS HARRISII AND POLYPLEURUS NITIDUS

Extract

Lepyrus alternans, Casey.—In a former paper (p. 125) the form described under this name was united with Capucinus, Schall, owing to an error of observation in regard to the wings. The example then examined was somewhat broken and it is now evident the wings had been removed. A recent dissection of a perfect specimen exhibits a welldeveloped pair of wings. This form is closely related to palustris (perhaps not more than a geographical variety), differing in the form of the thorax, which, instead of being conical, is much wider at middle than at base (subangulate); the rostrum is perhaps stouter and the mesosternum less elevated—both characters somewhat opinionative; there is no femoral tooth in any of the examples seen; the elytral intervals are less regular, either not obviously inequal or the first and third wider, the others narrower and some of them longitudinally sulcate along the middle; the strial punctuation is usually finer and closer, and the striæ seem to be acutely impressed when the elytra are perfectly denuded. In vestiture ornamentation and other characters the two forms seem identical.