1 82 MEMOIRS ON THE COLEOPTERA 



the second fully twice as wide as long, the club distinctly longer than the 

 entire preceding part. Female nearly like the male, though with the 

 sides not rectilinear but feebly arcuate, the outline less cylindric. Length 

 (cf 9 ) 6.8-7.0 mm.; width 2.65-2.8 mm. Massachusetts (Southboro). 



Examples of this species were sent to me several years ago by 

 Mr. Frost, with the suggestion that they might represent an un- 

 described species, but at that time my familiarity with the genus had 

 faded in great measure and I held them to be a variety of talpinus. 

 I see now, however, that they have but little very close relationship 

 with that Pacific coast species, being narrower, more cylindric, with 

 relatively shorter prothorax and longer elytra and with the abdomen 

 singularly diversified by oblique lines of greater density in the 

 pubescence; the antennal club, also, is broader. In the coloration 

 of the vestiture of the upper surface throughout, they are almost 

 absolutely similar, but in talpinus the hairs of the pronotum and 

 elytra are about equal in length, while here the pronotal pubescence 

 is very much longer and more shaggy than that of the elytra. The 

 European murinus Linn., is also allied to these species but is of still 

 more broadly oval outline, only slightly variegated vestiture, 

 equally short hairs on the pronotum and elytra and more parallel 

 black antennal club. 



Attagenus Latr. 



The species which I called schaefferi Hbst. (1. c., p. 146), based 

 upon a specimen from northern Idaho, was named simply from 

 descriptions, and I am by no means certain that it is correctly 

 identified. It is blacker and more shining than piceus and has the 

 elytral punctuation much less dense; piceus is of a browner color and 

 has a shorter prothorax. Pellio seems to be very rare in this coun- 

 try at least I only have the single example serving for my former 

 description. The development of the last antennal joint in the 

 male is of little significance from a specific point of view and, in the 

 separation of species, reference must be confined to general char- 

 acters of bodily form and sculpture, that reveal themselves con- 

 clusively with large series. Deficient Csy., I find to be by far the 

 commonest species in the District of Columbia, and I have a very 

 large series of both sexes taken on the window ledge of my working- 

 room; it is on the whole a smaller, narrower and blacker species 

 than piceus, with even denser elytral sculpture, as seen especially 



