STAPHYLINID^: 401 



tion at the apex of the sixth ventral. The very shining, almost 

 impunctate elytra do not form so conclusive a generic character, 

 since this feature occurs in some other groups merely as one of the 

 extremes of sculpture, the elytra being fully punctured to sub- 

 impunctate within generic limits, as in Distichalins , but the glabrous 

 upper surface of the tarsi is an important differential character. 



Quedius Steph. 



The type of this genus, which may be assumed to be molochinus 

 Grav., is more essentially subarctic in range, both in the palsearctic 

 and nearctic faunas, and the numerous American examples at hand 

 are from Rhode Island to Minnesota and southward in the Atlantic 

 regions to Southern Pines, North Carolina. There are a number 

 of closely related forms of molochinus in the European fauna, a 

 male from Morea before me differing, for example, from a male 

 from Dalmatia, in its rather smaller head, distinctly less elongate 

 antennae and stronger and less dense sculpture of the elytra and 

 abdomen, and our representatives differ in having the sinus of the 

 sixth male ventral segment distinctly deeper than in either of the 

 European examples cited; the elytra in our forms are also slightly 

 more abbreviated and of a more obscure rufous, frequently being 

 black like the rest of the upper surface. A female from Duluth 

 has much shorter antennae than another from Rhode Island. To 

 work out these various subsidiary forms and determine their 

 degree of constancy and relative importance taxonomically, would 

 require large series from many localities, but in the case of the 

 following modification, the differences are so numerous and mani- 

 fest, that there can be no doubt that geographic isolation has in this 

 case served to develop a distinct species from the old stock : 



Quedius strenuus n. sp. Body stouter and more fusiform than in 

 molochinus, intense black throughout, the elytra never rufescent; head 

 nearly similar in its broadly oval form and arrangement of the few 

 coarse foveae, but with the antennae slightly longer; prothorax nearly simi- 

 lar but more distinctly wider than long; elytra more nearly equal in length 

 to the prothorax, narrower than the latter at base but subequal thereto 

 in width at apex, not quite so abbreviated, densely punctate; abdomen 

 more finely and densely punctate, the sinus of the sixth ventral deeper, 

 being virtually as deep as wide. Length (cf 9 ) 10.5-11.3 mm.; width 2.2- 

 2.5 mm. Numerous examples from Texas (Austin) and Arizona (Tuc- 

 son). 



T. L. Casey, Mem. Col. VI, Nov. 1915. 



