P. J. Darlington, Jr.
A New Oedemerid Beetle from Cuba.
Psyche 43:102-103, 1936.

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Psyche
[December
A NEW CEDEMERID BEETLE FROM CUBA
Museum of Comparative Zoology
Cambridge, Mass.
The following description of a new Cuban Oedemerid is published now so that the name will be available for use in a forthcoming paper on mimicry of the Lycid genus Thonal- mus. Because of the present confusion among genera in the family Oedemeridae, I have collected ina separate para- graph the characters which have led me to place the new species in the genus Copidita.
Copidita thonalmus n. sp.
Generic characters: Head not prolonged into a beak; eyes only shallowly emarginate behind insertions of anten- nas; both mandibles bifid at apex; last segment maxillary palpi triangular but not broadly so; antennae with segment 11 more or less divided; middle cox= contiguous; front tibia with 2 spurs; penultimate segment of tarsi broadly lobed; tarsal claws angulate below but not toothed; 8 5th ventral segment not emarginate.
Specific characters: Body moderately stout for Copidita; color bright orange with apical Vy to % of elytra dark blue or greenish blue, the line of demarcation of the colors some- what irregular, the orange extending slightly toward apex at suture and margins, but not forming sutural and mar- ginal stripes; eyes, antennas, palpi, tips of mandibles, and legs black, except bases of femora orange; abdomen more or less dusky. Surface of head and pronoturn slightly shining, although closely punctate except on very narrow poorly defined median stripe; elytra dull, closely punctate. Eyes not very prominent. Prothorax about one-tenth (by measurement) wider than long, subcordate, with base about



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19361 New Oedemerid Beetle 103
three-quarters as wide as widest part and sides slightly sinuate before basal angles, which are not prominent. -
Elytra one-quarter ( 3 ) to one-half ( Q ) wider than pro- thorax. Length 6.5.-8.0 ; width 1.9-2.4 mm. Holotype $ (M. C. Z. no. 22464) (sex determined by dissection) and 4 paratypes from Janoru (Camaguey Pro- vince), Cuba, May 27, 1931, "taken on weeds7? by L. C. Scaramuzza; 1 paratype from about 3,000 ft. altitude near Buenos Aires, Trinidad Mts. (Santa Clara Province), Cuba, May 8-14, 1936, taken by myself on an unidentified flower- ing tree.
The coloration of this beautiful Oedemerid is unique, so far as I have been able to find by an examination of the descriptions of all known West Indian and many Central American species, and an examination of North American species in the Leconte Collection. The color at once dis- tinguishes thonalmm from the commoner Cuban Copidita testaceicollis (Jac.-Duval) (de la Sagra's Histoire . . . de Cuba, [Vol. 71 Animaux ArticvMs, 1857, p. 158), which has similar generic characters but is smaller, black, with vaguely bluish or greenish elytra and yellowish prothorax. The only other Oedemerid recorded from Cuba, Asclera latior Pic (M6langes exot.-ent. fasc. 40, 1923 p. 32), is not known to me, but is described as similar in color to testaceicollis.




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