234 MEMOIRS ON THE COLEOPTERA 



2.0 mm.; width 1.2-1.35 mm. Long Island to Texas (Columbus). 



Five examples vernus Say 



II Body broadly oblong-oval, moderately convex, smooth and polished, 

 metallic blue-green above, the under surface nearly black, the legs 

 obscure; head feebly concave, with coarse scattered punctures, the 

 lateral striae coarse, angulate, the anterior obliquity not long; pro- 

 thorax twice as wide as long, the converging sides arcuate; surface 

 impressed anteriorly near the sides, having sparsely scattered punc- 

 tures laterally and finer sparse punctures toward apex; lateral stria 

 wanting, the marginal very fine; elytra shorter than wide, only 

 moderately narrowed behind, the surface with rather strong scattered 

 punctures apically, the striae fine, minutely crenulate, the two inner 

 abbreviated basally, the sutural the shorter, the fourth not hooked 

 at base; subhumeral stria short, fine, not extending to the apex; 

 propygidium rather coarsely, moderately closely punctate; pro- 

 sternal striae coarse, parallel, very widely separated, the marginal 

 stria of the mesosternum interrupted at the middle, the discal 

 arcuate, crenate and abbreviated at each side. Length 2.2-2.6 mm.; 

 width 1.4-1.65 mm. North Carolina (Southern Pines), Manee. 



Six specimens venustus Lee. 



A Coloration as in the preceding, the general structural characters 

 and sculpture also nearly similar, but the body is smaller and more 

 narrowly oblong-oval, the punctures of the head, sides of the 

 pronotum, elytral apices and propygidium finer and less distinct, 

 and the surface between the prosternal striae, which is sparsely 

 punctate in venustus, is here wholly impunctate. Length 1.9 mm.; 

 width 1. 25 mm. Louisiana. One example. . .chalybseus n. subsp. 



Saunieri Mars., is apparently not represented in my collection; 

 it was taken at Rochester, New York; it is closely allied to vernus, 

 but is larger and with more densely punctulate pygidium. Venus- 

 tus is aberrant in the anterior impressions of the prothorax, dentition 

 of the anterior tibiae, in coloration and in the punctuation of the 

 elytra and pronotum, as well as several other features. I do not 

 have <zneomicans Horn, at present, but it seems to belong to the 

 venustus group; it occurs rarely in the District of Columbia and 

 was taken by the late Mr. Henry Ulke. The rather numerous 

 Mexican species, described by Schmidt in Entomologische Nach- 

 richten, all seem to differ from any of those described above in 

 one way or another; parallelisternus has the prosternal striae as in 

 aztecanus and pimalis, but the elytral striation is different. Phelister 

 gentilis of Horn, from Arizona, is quite certainly not a true Phelister; 

 there are said to be six entire dorsal striae and a sutural stria, 

 which is joined at base to the inner dorsal by an arcuate line. 



If I have properly identified the two forms described by Mr. 



