DERMESTID/E 179 



tate but much less elongate. The following, which also belongs to 

 the same section, has a very much more abbreviated prothorax: 



Byturus brevicollis n. sp. father stout, oblong, parallel, convex, 

 somewhat shining, the pubescence unusually short, very stiff and de- 

 cumbent, the hairs well separated, fulvous and perfectly uniform on the 

 elytra; head large, fully three-fifths as wide as the prothorax, with strong 

 but loose punctuation, the eyes large, globose and basal; antennae of the 

 usual length, longer than the head, the club much less abrupt than in the 

 preceding, the outer joints of the funicle somewhat dilated; prothorax 

 shorter than in any other species, more than twice as wide as long, strongly 

 convex, with a broad concave deplanation in outer fourth or more of the 

 base and flexed anteriorly along the sides, becoming narrower apically; 

 sides feebly arcuate and slightly converging from the base, more rounded 

 apically; base feebly arcuate, the apex rectilinearly truncate; punctures 

 strong and close-set; scutellum quadrate, more densely and pallidly pu- 

 bescent; elytra as wide as the prothorax and about four times as long, 

 parallel, nearly three-fourths longer than wide, rather rapidly ogival at 

 tip; punctures moderately coarse, deep, very even and somewhat close- 

 set; under surface minutely, closely punctate throughout and with the 

 hairs short, decumbent and everywhere distinctly though narrowly sepa- 

 rated; lamellae beneath the tarsi well developed. Length 3.5 mm.; 

 width' 1. 45 mm. 



The single specimen is of undetermined sex and has long been in 

 my collection unlabeled; possibly it may have come from the 

 Levette collection; it represents a species not very closely related 

 to any other known to me, and therefore well merits description, 

 notwithstanding its unrecorded habitat. In some characters it is 

 related to punctatus, being of about the same form and size and with 

 similar deplanature about the sides and external base of the pro- 

 notum, but the antennae differ in structure, the pubescence is very 

 much shorter, sparser and more evenly distributed and, on the under 

 surface, is sparser, much shorter and not dense toward the sides of- 

 the post-sterna. 



DERMESTIDJE 



The articles of dried animal substances furnishing food for most 

 of the members of this family, form subjects of frequent commercial 

 barter between different parts of the world, so that it might be 

 supposed for that reason that many of the species might be cosmo- 

 politan in distribution. This is a fact in many cases, as with about 

 five species of Dermestes, Attagenus piceus, pellio and schaefferi and 

 Anthremis verbasci and scrophularia, but it is surprising, under the 



