854 STAPHYLINIDA. 
the middle quite free from punctures. The elytra are rather finely and not closely 
punctured. The basal segment of the hind body is blackish, as also is the fifth segment 
and the hind margin of the fourth, the intermediate space being reddish yellow; the 
whole of the two terminal segments is flavescent. The upper aspect of the hind body 
is very little punctate, except that in the female the penultimate segment is densely 
and very finely punctured. 
In the male the last dorsal plate is bisinuate, so that it is trilobed, the middle lobe 
being the longest and broadest, and the outer projection, which is quite at the side, less 
conspicuous; the corresponding ventral plate bears a notch at the apex in the middle, 
and on each side of this the polished surface is somewhat hollowed ; the terminal styles 
are distorted, broadly dilated behind, subfurcate, and with the infero-external portion 
much prolonged; the front tarsi are moderately dilated, and the tibie incrassate 
behind. The female has the front tarsi only very slightly dilated, and the last ventral 
plate is a little produced and acuminate in the middle. 
A good series of examples has been obtained of this remarkable species. The figure 
is taken from a male example. 
8. Plociopterus belti. 
Rufo-testaceus ; pectore, elytris abdomineque ante apicem fuscis ; antennis, pedibus abdominisque apice testaceis, 
elytris ante apicem fascia transversa sat conspicua cinereo-pubescente. 
Long. 13 millim. 
Hab. Nicaragua, Chontales (Belt). 
The single female by which this species is represented appears to be very closely 
allied to P. variegatus, though the colour-differences are numerous ; the punctuation is 
very similar in the two, and so also are the female characters, except that the last 
dorsal plate is more conspicuously produced and acuminate in the middle in P. belti 
and is foveate in front of the point. The antenne are longer and more slender in the 
female of P. delti than is usual in other species of the genus, and the apices of the 
serrate joints 8-10 are swollen by some soft projection. ‘The male characters will no 
doubt prove to be very remarkable. 
PHILOTHALPUS. 
Philothalpus, Kraatz, Ins. Deutsch. ii. p. 540. 
Staphylinus, Fam. TX., Erichson, Gen. et. Spec. Staph. p. 395. 
This genus, like all the allies, is peculiar to the warmer parts of America. After 
abstraction of the species I have assigned to Styngetus, it includes seven or eight others 
in addition to those here enumerated. 
