256 MEMOIRS ON THE COLEOPTERA 



thorax widest near the middle, where it is evidently wider than at 

 base, about one-half wider than long; apex distinctly narrower than 

 the base, very feebly sinuate, the angles not in the least prominent 

 and very broadly rounded; sides evenly and moderately arcuate, 

 strongly but not coarsely reflexed; basal angles more than right and 

 slightly blunt; surface punctureless, the subbasal foveoles somewhat 

 as in the preceding; elytra shorter, scarcely more than a third longer 

 than wide, ogivally rounded behind the middle, barely at all wider 

 than the prothorax, the marginal gutter rather coarse; striae not 

 very fine, groove-like, impunctate, the scutellar short, fine, oblique; 

 lateral series not evidently interrupted; intervals flat. Length (9) 

 6.6 mm.; width 3.2 mm. Mexico (Salazar, Mex.), Wickham. 



*parata n. sp. 



In the first three of the above species the strial intervals frequently 

 display decided traces of the subnodular elevation characterizing 

 most of the erratica group, but this feature is not distinctly trace- 

 able in the last two; the single types of the latter were taken at 

 the same place by Prof. Wickham and belong to the same subsec- 

 tion of the californica group, but they are specifically different, as 

 may be seen from the descriptions; parata has a form of prothorax 

 recalling that of certain small species of Bradytus, and perhaps 

 there may be some real affinity. 



Group III 



The general habitus of rectangula Lee., sets it apart from all other 

 species of Celia, by reason of its elongate parallel outline and less 

 transverse prothorax, so that the propriety of a distinct group for it 

 seems apparent. It is here that some striking characteristics of all 

 the preceding species become obsolete and replaced by others which 

 remain evident through the remaining groups of the genus; this ob- 

 servation refers particularly to the punctureless pronotum and feeble 

 subbasal foveoles of the former and the latero-basal punctures and 

 stronger foveae of the latter, also to the irregularly elevated strial 

 intervals of the one and the more even intervals of the other. We 

 might therefore have proposed a division of the genus into two 

 equivalent sections, the first composed of groups I and II and the 

 second of groups III to VI. It is only in the second of these two pri- 

 mary subdivisions that punctured elytral striae become very evident, 

 though this character is scarcely ever noticeable even here, ex- 

 cept in Group VI, composed of a host of very small species. The 

 type species of this group is the following: 



