670 BYRRHIDZ. 
Fam. BYRRHIDA*. 
This is one of the smaller families of Coleoptera, comprising altogether some 200 to 
300 species. It is not clear that it can be separated from either Parnide or Dascil- 
lide. The four recognized subfamilies of Byrrhide have little connection beyond the 
fact that all have peculiar arrangements for retraction of the legs and packing them 
very close to the body. 
The typical subfamily Byrrhine is not represented in our collections. 
Subfam. NOSODENDRINZ. 
NOSODENDRON. 
Nosodendron, Latreille, Gen. Crust. et Ins. ii. p. 43 (1807) ; Erichson, Ins. Deutschl. ii. p. 465. 
Dendrodipnis, Wollaston, Ent. Monthly Mag. x. p. 33 (1878). 
This at present is a genus of some ten species, but is very widely distributed. 
Dendrodipnis was founded by Wollaston for an insect destitute of fascicles, and our 
species therefore all belong to it; but it cannot at present be adopted, as the clothing 
of the surface does not divide the genus satisfactorily. In North America only two 
species are known—N. californicum, Horn (a true Nosodendron and distinct from 
N. fasciculare), and N. unicolor, Say, a Dendrodipnis. So far as hitherto knewn these 
insects, both in the larva and imago stage, live in the sap flowing from wounded trees ; 
but this is probably not the case with IV. mexicanum, which was found by Flohr in 
muddy places. | 
The members of this genus have the gula striate, so as to form a stridulating-organ 
scratched by the front of the prosternum. The structure of the mentum affords 
excellent characters for the distinction of the species. Our seven representatives thus 
fall into four categories, viz. :— 
1. Mentum broad, without impressions.—WN. latifrons. 
2. Mentum with three longitudinal grooves, joined in front by the convergence of the two 
outer grooves.—N. politum. 
3. Mentum with a transverse groove near the front.—N. sudbtile, N. derasum. 
4. Mentum with an oblong longitudinal impression divided into two by a raised carina,— 
N. mexicanum, N. championi, N. chiriquense. 
1. Nosodendron mexicanum, sp. n. 
Ovale, fere angustum sat nitidum, nigrum, pedibus piceis, antennis testaceis ; dense subtilissime punctatum, 
elytris seriebus punctorum majorum ad basin haud desinentibus. 
Long. + millim. 
Hab. Muxico, Jalapa (Flohr). 
One of the narrowest species of the genus. ‘The upper surface bears a minute 
punctuation, which is wanting on the middle of the thorax and on the sutural portion 
* By D. Swarr. 
