Some New West Indian Species of the Melolonthid Genus Lachnosterna

Extract

Twenty-four West Indian species of this genus were enumerated in Messrs. Leng and Mutchler’s list of 1914, in addition to which four species from Porto Rico have since been named by Mr. Eugene Smyth (Journ. Dept. Agric. Porto Rico, i, 1917). Two other species have been assigned to the genus Phytalus, which is distinguished from Lachnosterna solely by the claw-tooth making an acute instead of a wide angle with the tip. As H. W. Bates found in his attempt to distribute the Central American species, it is impossible to make this the basis of a natural division, especially as in certain species (as in L. dilemma here described) it is confined to the male.