II SOME RANDOM STUDIES AMONG THE CLAVICORNIA 



The families touched upon in the following paper are the Phal- 

 acridae, Monotomidae, Ostomidee, Cucujidae, Endomychidse, Eroty- 

 lidae, Mycetophagidae, Byturidae, Derrnestidae and the Histeridae in 

 part. It was my desire and intention to overhaul nearly all the 

 small families of clavicorns, as well as some others allied thereto, 

 but time failed' me, owing to the great amount of work involved 

 in mounting and preparing for my collection large masses of 

 material, some of which had been received in the rough years 

 before. In order that specimens may best be fitted for discrimi- 

 native observation, careful mounting is a prime necessity, but this 

 absorbs a very large proportion of all the time available for such 

 studies in the daily routine of life, which flows along and ebbs away 

 with ever increasing speed. 



PHALACRID^: 



Only two American species of this much neglected family have 

 been described since my revision of 1890 (Ann. N. Y. Acad., V, p. 89). 

 In the twenty-five years intervening my material in the family has 

 increased prodigiously, by acquisitions through purchase or by 

 voluntary gifts of numerous friends, as well as much personal 

 collecting. It seems desirable to incorporate this material with 

 that which served for the revision mentioned, and I have therefore 

 drawn up new tables for most of the genera. 



Phalacrus Payk. 



The large majority of species in the Phalacridae are characterized 

 externally by a peculiar monotony of appearance, and of no genus 

 is this truer than of Phalacrus itself. There are seldom any striking 

 differences observable within the genus affecting special organs or 

 parts of the body, such as are usually available to the systematist 

 in other genera of the Coleoptera, and reliance has to be placed 

 principally upon sculpture and certain general characters of form 

 and size. This sculpture of the elytra, although minute and feeble 



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