HlSTERID^ 273 



described, would immediately betray its distinctness and its validity 

 as a species. Fitchi is represented in my collection by an adequate 

 series from North Carolina, Michigan and Louisiana; it is much 

 more broadly oval than omissus and the punctures of the elytra 

 are still denser and much coarser. 



The two following species are allied to bigemmeus Lee., a species 

 common on the California seashore, and having very dense strigili- 

 form elytral punctures and a small, posteriorly not sharply defined, 

 scutellar mirror. In this species the prosternal striae become gradu- 

 ally more approximate to far beyond the middle, where they begin 

 to recede from each other again and form a closed anterior loop, 

 of which the distal end is tangent to the apical margin. In the 

 following species, one of the most minute of the genus, these strise 

 are quite different as will appear: 



Saprinus parvus n. sp. Oblong-oval, rather convex, highly polished, 

 black, the legs piceous, the upper surface with brilliant aeneous lustre; 

 narrow interspaces between the punctures highly polished and nowhere 

 in the least reticulate; head strongly, loosely and irregularly punctate 

 posterior to the very imperfect arcuate discal line behind the entire 

 apical carina; prothorax three-fourths wider than long, the moderately 

 converging sides just visibly arcuate to the apex, where they are rapidly 

 and transversely rounded; surface in about apical half very finely and 

 feebly, strigosely punctulate, gradually becoming well separated feeble 

 longitudinal lines toward the sides, smooth in a large and transversely 

 subtriangular ante-basal region, the confused basal punctures strong and 

 extending some distance from the base; elytra evidently less than one- 

 half longer than the prothorax, feebly inflated subbasally, the punctures 

 densely compressed, forming a strigilate sculpture, the separating convex 

 interspaces polished, the scutellar mirrors nearly as in bigemmeus; flanks 

 smooth; strise rather fine, scarcely extending to the middle, the fourth 

 arched and joining the sutural, which is entire; outer subhumeral very 

 short but separated from the base of the lateral, the inner a fine oblique 

 medial line; pygidium small, strongly convex, shining, finely and some- 

 what loosely punctate; prosternal striae extremely approximate through- 

 out, not more distant anteriorly, or forming a closed loop at apex, 

 which they do not quite attain, gradually and moderately diverging 

 basally, the oblique lateral lines upwardly converging and forming a 

 narrow parabola at the apical margin; mesosternum very minutely, 

 sparsely punctulate; anterior tibiae with about six denticles, not abruptly 

 larger distally. Length 1.7 mm.; width 1.2 mm. California (Los 

 Angeles Co.). 



Distinguishable at once from bigemmeus by its minute size, less 

 closely punctate head, polished and not micro-reticulate interstices 

 of the elytral punctures, straighter sides of the prothorax, and 

 T. L. Casey, Mem. Col. VII, Nov. 1916. 



