STAPHYLINID/E 425 



the middle of the elytra, somewhat shorter and slightly incrassate 

 ( 9 ) ; prothorax a fourth wider than long, rounded at base, widest 

 basally, the sides converging and feebly arcuate from the very 

 broadly rounded angles to the apex; two discal punctures nearly as 

 in bicolor; scutellum closely punctulate; elytra much shorter than 

 wide, not quite as long as the prothorax, at apex fully as wide as the 

 latter, at base much narrower, the sides diverging; punctures minute 

 and only moderately dense, the decumbent hairs very fine, the 

 surface much more shining than in bicolor but with a similar discal 

 line of three punctures; abdomen acuminate, at base scarcely as wide 

 as the elytral apex, sculptured somewhat as in bicolor; sixth ventral 

 (d") conical, the apex sinuato-truncate, the two apical stylets not 

 very bristling and with two very slender intermediate processes, 

 or (9 ) narrow, elongate, with the apex circularly rounded, the two 

 brushes of stiff black hairs distinct. Length (o* 9 ) 3-3-3-5 mm.; 

 width 0.73-0.8 mm. Texas (Austin). Three examples. 



acuminatus n. sp. 



Dr. Sharp in the "Biologia," has given a method of subdividing 

 the species of this genus into sections, based upon certain arrange- 

 ment of bristles on the anterior femora of the male, but my material 

 is so scanty that I have had no opportunity to test its general 

 usefulness. In the male of acuminatus, the anterior femora are 

 perfectly smooth on their lower face, excepting toward the lower 

 margin, where there are small close-set subasperate pubiferous 

 punctures, irregularly arranged. In what I hold to be the female, 

 however, the lower edge of the anterior femora has, medially, a 

 dense comb of short black contiguous and spinuliform setae, the 

 comb about half as long as the femur. It seems to me that this 

 is the female and not the male, because the antennae and apex of 

 the sixth ventral, when compared with those specimens not pos- 

 sessing the femoral comb, are modified in exactly the direction of 

 the usual feminine sexual signs in other Staphylinids, that is, the 

 antennae are shorter and more incrassate and the abdominal tip 

 strongly rounded and not broadly sinuate as it is in those that do 

 not have the comb. However, I have made no dissections and my 

 belief is therefore based upon inference. 



While allied to collaris Er., from Guyana, in South America, I am 

 convinced that bicolor, described above, is different; it is smaller 

 in size and the antennae appear to be longer; the coloration of the 

 elytra, also, is different, they being described as pallescent apically 

 in collaris; in bicolor there is only a very fine abrupt apical and 



