PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM issued SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM ^-' --■ -■^-, ■ :l ■ . ' , ' ■ --■ ■ , . ■ „. ;■ ■■ -■ ■■ ■ -. ■-■ . ■ ■■ ■■---, .■■—.-..— — -...-■_, Vol, 89 Washington : 1940 No. 3095 REVISION OF THE SCARABAEID BEETLES OF THE PHYL-LOPHAGAN SUBGENUS LISTROCHELUS OF THE UNITED STATES, WITH DISCUSSION OF RELATED SUBGENERA By Lawrence W. Saylor Listrochelus was described as a genus by Blanchard in 1850, with L. laportaei (from Mexico) as the type species. In 1878 Horn pub-hshed a revision of the United States species, and other than scattered descriptions there has since been no further revision of the group. The present paper treats 39 species and subspecies, of which 20 are herein described as new; also listed are four Mexican species that have not heretofore been recorded from north of the Rio Grande. The material studied consisted of 1,571 specimens (1,003 males and 568 females) lent by aU the major private and public collections of the country. All the figures were drawn by the author. The species considered as belonging to this group present a rather varied appearance, and nearly all types of structural modifications between species found in the typical portion of the genus (Phyllophaga sensu stricto) occur; as yet, however, no species of Listrochelus is known to me in which one of the hind tibial spurs in the male is immovable or in which the middle male tarsal claws are "deformed." Nearly every serious student of the group has expressed at one time or another the opinion that Listrochelus was not tenable as a genus and either that its boundaries be modified or else that it be suppressed entirely. With more than twice the number of species known to previous workers before me, I am unable to find characters that will sustain Listrochelus as a valid genus. True, there are a certain num-219855—40 1 59
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