Epicaerus (Epicaerus) nebulosus Boheman 1834

Hab.MEXICO¹², Cordova, Toxpam, Vera Cruz (Sallé), Oaxaca (Höge).

This is another variable species, certain specimens of which resemble extremely some of the varieties of E. mexicanus. E. nebulosus may, however, always be distinguished from the commoner species by the following characters: the rostrum is shorter; the eyes are more convex; the head behind the eyes is subconstricted and the outline of the front of the thorax at the sides is very sinuate, so that a distinct, if rudimentary, ocular lobe is present. The rostrum in E. nebulosus is in each sex deeply impressed, and the sides of the depression are more abruptly raised, and converge less at the forehead. E. nebulosus is apparently not a common insect, and nearly all of the fourteen specimens we have received of it are old examples from Sallé's collection. The marks on the wing-cases—on which Boheman chiefly relied when discriminating E. nebulosus

—are distinct in some examples only, being in others entirely absent. The size of the individual is on the average very much less than it is in E. mexicanus, but the largest examples considerably exceed the smaller specimens of the commoner species in stature.
 
The example sent me as E. nebulosus from Schönherr's collection is a small male of E. mexicanus, but I anticipate that other specimens in the Schönherrian collection may prove to be the insect I now call E. nebulosus; if this, however, should not be the case the species will require a new name.

We have now seen a long series of this species and there can be little doubt that it was correctly identified by Dr. Sharp, the convex, prominent eyes and the subconstricted head separating E. nebulosus from both E. mexicanus and E. fallax. The type of E. neglectus (an insect omitted from the list of species, anteà, pp. 105—128), also from Mexico², cannot now be found in the Hope collection at Oxford: it is probably a female of E. nebulosus. The British Museum has recently received examples of the latter from Vera Cruz which were captured by Mr. Crawford.