MORDELLISTENA. 333 
antenne varying in colour from black to testaceous (usually black with the three or four basal joints only 
testaceous)—( ¢) long, filiform, with joint 3 short, 4 a little longer and stouter than 3, 5-11 elongate, 
(2) shorter, with joints 3 and 4 subequal; prothorax transverse, slightly narrowed behind ; elytra mode- 
rately long ; beneath black, with the pubescence paler than above; pygidium slender, long in the male, 
shorter in the female; legs variable in colour—usually black with the anterior pair in great part, the 
middle tibis, and the hind tibial spurs testaceous, sometimes almost entirely black (the spurs excepted) ; 
the hind tibie and the first joint of the hind tarsi each with three or four, and the second joint of the hind 
tarsi with two, short, parallel, oblique ridges. 
Var. a. Larger; the antenne (¢) thicker, and with the fourth joint much stouter and fully one half longer 
than the third; the hind tibiew and the first joint of the hind tarsi each with four or five, the second joint 
of the latter with two, short ridges. . 
Var. @. The four anterior legs and the antenne testaceous, the hind femora and tibie partly rufous ; the hind 
tibie and the first joint of the hind tarsi each with three, the second joint of the latter with two, short 
ridges ; the elytral pubescence yellowish-cinereous along the suture and at the sides and for the rest 
blackish-brown, or uniformly golden-brown. 
Length to end of the elytra 3-44, to tip of the pygidium 33-53, millim. (¢ 2.) 
Hab. Muxtco, Omilteme, Amula, Chilpancingo, Tepetlapa, Cuernavaca, Atoyac, 
Fortin, Teapa (H. H. Smith), Oaxaca, Guanajuato (Sallé), Tupataro (Hége); GuatE- 
MALA (Sallé), Duefias (Champion). 
A common insect in Mexico. I am quite unable to distinguish more than one species 
amongst the large number of specimens before me. Of the var. « we have three male 
examples, all from Omilteme; of the var. 8 two only, male and female—the former 
from Omilteme, the latter from Chilpancingo. From several of the similarly coloured 
forms here described the elongate antenne in the male sex sufficiently distinguish 
M. murine. 
42. Wordellistena debilis. 
Moderately elongate, slightly cuneiform, black, thickly clothed with fine, silky, brown or brownish-cinereous: 
pubescence, the pubescence sometimes blackish at the apex of the elytra. Head moderately convex, the 
eyes large; palpi varying in colour from pale testaceous to pitchy-brown, the last joint of the maxillary 
pair long and subeultriform in the male, shorter and elongate-triangular in the female ; antenne usually 
piceous with the four basal joints testaceous, sometimes in great part testaceous, slender, filiform, elongate 
in the male, much shorter in the female, joints 3 and 4 short, equal, 5 nearly twice as long as 4, 5-10 
subequal, elongate in the male, shorter in the female ; prothorax broader than long; elytra subparallel in 
their basal half, moderately long ; beneath black, brownish-cinereous-pubescent ; pygidium very slender, 
elongate in the male, shorter in the female; legs black, the front pair usually, the middle pair rarely, and 
the hind tibial spurs testaceous; the hind tibie and the first joint of the hind tarsi each with three, the 
second joint of the hind tarsi with two, short, parallel ridges. 
Var. The head testaceous, with the vertex piceous ; the antenne entirely testaceous ; the prothorax testaceous 
with a broad interrupted median vitta, in one example black with a transverse testaceous patch on either 
side before the apex. 
Length to end of the elytra 2-3, to tip of the pygidium 23-33, millim. (¢ 9.) 
Hab. Mexico, Chilpancingo (H. H. Smith); Guatemata, San Gerdnimo, Aceituno, 
Capetillo, Duefias (Champion), Coban (Conradt). 
Numerous examples of the type, two only of the variety. A perplexing little species, 
separable from the allied forms, IZ. murina &c., by its very small size, slender antenne, 
