H. C. Fall.
New Species of Cryptocephalus (Coleoptera; Chrysomelidæ).
Psyche 39:21-25, 1932.

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New Species of Cryptocephalus
NEW SPECIES OF CRYPTOCEPHALUS
(Coleoptera ; Chrysomelidae)
Tyngsboro, Mass.
Cryptocephalus pallidicinctus n. sp.
Moderately robust. Head black, a quadrate post-clypeal area, a small spot posteriorly adjacent thereto, and the en- tire inner border of the eyes narrowly whitish yellow. Antennae black.
Prothorax orange red, the extreme apical edge pale yel- low, the basal edge very narrowly blackish; surface sparsely feebly and very finely punctate. Elytra black, with narrow whitish yellow basal and lat- eral margin which at apex does not quite reach the sutural angle; striae moderately impressed, nearly as in sanguin- icollis, the sutural not reaching the middle of the elytra, 6th very widely interrupted medially, 7th dislocated at basal third.
Entire upper surface polished and strongly shining. Pygidium coarsely punctate, obtusely carinate at middle in basal third. Body beneath black; prosternum whitish yel- low, with moderate cuspiform lobe in front, the hind angles with erect spiniform processes tipped with black. Length 4 mm.; width 2.3 mm.
Palm Springs, California, 3-22-17. A single male. This species is nearly related structurally to sanguini- collis, but differently colored. It differs further in its more distinctly impressed elytral striae, carinate pygidium, and smoother elytral interspaces, which show scarcely a trace of the fine transverse regulosity usually evident in sanguini- collis.
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22 Psyche [March
Cryptocephalus apicedens n. sp.
Pale yellow with fuscous stripes, the darker color pre- dominating. Antennae pale at base, infuscate externally. Head yellow with a fuscous inverted V, the branches term- inating inferiorly at the bases of the antennae. Prothorax with four broad fuscous stripes leaving a narrow sharply defined median line, a very narrow anterior margin, wider lateral margins, and two somewhat oblique basal spots which are produced imperfectly to the front margin, yellow.
Elytra with the suture dark except at base, and each with three fuscous stripes, the two outer in great part con- fluent.
The yellow stripes occupy the 2nd, 4th and mar- ginal interspaces, the two former abbreviated at apex. There is also a short humeral dash between the 5th and 6th striae, and an obscure subapical streak between the 6th and 7th striae. The striae themselves are regular ex- cept the 5th, which is confused behind the middle, and the 6th which is interrupted medially.
The entire upper surface is highly polished, the thorax with very sparse minute punctures, the elytra without trace of interstitial punctures. Prosternum behind broadly emarginate with prominent elevated lateral angles; apical margin obtusely prominent at middle, behind which is a short erect and acute spiniform tooth ( 8 ) . Length 3 mm.; width 1.7 mm.
Described from a single male taken at Jemez Springs, New Mexico, VI-8-22.
This little species seems most nearly related to con- fluens but the several differences, though in part rather trifling, are in the aggregate I think sufficient to forbid its association with that species. These differences are as follows. The form is less parallel in the present species, the elytra distinctly narrowing from base to apex; eyes less widely separated above; instead of the inverted V of the present species the front in all examples of confluens seen is marked with a short median line on the vertex; the 5th elytral stria is quite regular in confluens and the



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19321 New Species of Cryptocephalus 23
6th is represented as a rule by only two or three punctures just behind the humeral callus; the size in confluens is consistently larger ; finally and probably most important, the acute lobe or cusp formed by the production of the apical margin of the prosternum in the male of confluens and allied species is here replaced by an isolated spiniform tooth posterior to the true margin, which latter is only moderately angularly advanced at middle. Cryptocephalus merus n. sp.
Moderately stout, subparallel, yellow, highly polished, with brown or reddish brown markings as follows. Head with the usual small vertex and supra-antenna1 spots; prothorax with four more or less irregular or disintegrated vittae, the two inner ones separated by a narrow sharply defined yellow line; elytra with brown striae, an elongate spot between striae 2-3 at base, a similar spot at the apical third between striae 4-5, behind this another more diffuse, the humeral umbo, and two small spots at basal and apical thirds on the subhumeral interspace. Striae 5-7 are inde- pendent for a short distance at base but become inter- rupted and partially lost posteriorly.
Head sparsely finely punctate ; prothorax with sparse ir- regularly scattered rather coarse punctures; elytral striae moderately impressed.
Body beneath yellow with close set punctures, metaster- num, and ventral segments in part, brown. Prosternum in front with apically rounded not very prominent lobe; be- hind emarginate and bilobed as usual.
Length 4 mm. ; width 2.3 mm.
El Paso, Texas. Type s ..
This species is not closely similar to any known to me. In a general way at long range the elytral markings some- what resemble those of spurcus, and for the present it may be placed near the latter. The very sparsely irregularly and rather coarsely punctate thorax has no parallel in any of our previously described species, but occurs again in the following species, which may indeed be no more than a variant form of the present one.




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24 Psyche [March
Since writing the above I have received from Mr. D. K. Duncan two examples from "Base of Pinal Mts., Arizona," which are quite surely specifically identical with my El Paso type. They differ only in having the dark shades on the pronotum almost washed out and those of the elytra completely so.
Cryptocephalus cuneatus n. sp.
Moderately robust, elytra distinctly narrowed from base to apex; color pale yellow; prothorax with three rather wide light brown vittse which do not quite attain the apex; elytra with a narrow common sutural vitta and another scarcely wider from the humeral callus slightly abbreviated at apex, deep black. Antennae pale at base, infuscate apically.
Head finely sparsely punctate, a narrow vertex line and a spot at base of antennae light brown.
Prothorax shining, sparsely lightly and very finely punc- tate, the interstices between the punctures thickly set with very minute punctules. The brown vittse are subequal in width to the intervening yellow ones ; lateral margins finely edged with black except near the base.
Elytra with similar ground sculpture of micro punctula- tion and with eight discal striae between the short sutural and the marginal stria, the sixthhowever imperfect and contained wholly within the lateral black vitta. The basal two punctures of the fourth discal stria are joined by a dark line. Epipleura blackish posteriorly, and externally so toward the base.
Body beneath and legs pale. Prosternum slightly prom- inent at apex, feebly carinate along the middle, narrowly emarginate and obtusely bilobed behind.
Length 3.4 mm.; width 2 mm.
Tybee Island, Georgia. A single male collected and sent me by the late G. R. Pilate.
This very pretty little species bears an obvious resem- blance in size, form and pronotal markings to trivittatus, which, however, differs by its much more coarsely and closely punctate thorax, which because of a very fine alu- taceous ground sculpture in addition to the micro-punc-



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19321 New Species of Cryptocephalus 25
tulation above referred to, is more or less dull in lustre. The elytral vittae in trivittatus are brown instead of black and much less even and' clear cut, the lateral ones always more or less disrupted and displaced posteriorly where it extends inward to the fourth stria.
Cryptocephalus ochraceus n. sp.
Upper surface of a nearly uniform deep yellow tint; head with a short vertex line and the bases of the antennae red- dish brown; prothorax with a feeble narrow basal line and faint traces of sublateral shades; elytra with the strial punctures, the sutural edge and an ill defined fascia just before the apex of the same color. Antennae pale basally, outer joints brownish.
Head sparsely punctate ; thorax strongly and conspicu- ously so, the punctures in great part tinged with reddish brown and separated on the average by about their own diameters ; surface moderately shining.
Elytra a little duller in lustre though without perceptible alutaceous sculpture. Striae not much impressed, the sutu- ral reaching the basal third, discal striae 1-5, 8, and 9 quite regular, 6th and 7th regular for a short distance behind the humeral callus but much confused beyond that point. In- tervals with a single series of widely spaced extremely minute punctures.
Body beneath suffused with reddish brown, tibiae, tarsi and apical half of femora of same color, basal half of fe- mora yellow. Prosternum not distinctly lobed in front, rather deeply emarginate with prominent angles behind. Length 4.4 mm., width 2.5 mm.
Dunedin, Florida, IV-5-22: a single female specimen collected by the writer.
This species in size and color somewhat resembles um- bonatus Schf. but in the latter the striae are much deeper and the thorax very much more finely punctate. In its relatively coarsely punctate thorax ochraceus approaches the species at the end of LeConte's table, more especially tinctus, before which and schreibersi I would suggest it be placed.




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