58 MEMOIRS ON THE COLEOPTERA 



and of a distinctly different type of structure from any observable 

 in the preceding tribe. The type of the genus may be described 

 as follows: 



Oval, rather sharply ogival behind, convex, moderately shining, black 

 above, dark rufous beneath, clothed not very densely with very 

 short decumbent fuscous hairs, with a feebly denned silvery spot 

 on each elytron and with very few if any erect hairs intermingled; 

 head convex, finely, rather closely punctate, the eyes with a carini- 

 form margin immediately above them, at the anterior end of which 

 is a deep pubescent rounded pit immediately behind the antennae, 

 and, at the posterior end, another deep rounded pit which is at the 

 mouth of the oblique, polished, abruptly formed and deep pronotal 

 fossa, the cylindrical bottom of the latter sloping upward posteriorly 

 to the level of the pronotum; prothorax short and transverse, with 

 strongly converging sides running into the fossae from a dorsal 

 viewpoint, minutely and closely punctate throughout and with a 

 fine polished anterior margin, which seems to be slightly elevated 

 and delimited by a finely and irregularly ragged line, the basal lobe 

 well developed, the median line wholly unimpressed; scutellum rather 

 small, a little longer than wide, triangular; elytra barely visibly 

 longer than wide, rather widest near basal third, the sides rounded, 

 gradually converging posteriorly to the acutely ogival apex, at 

 base continuing the outline of the prothorax, very finely, equally 

 and closely punctate, the punctures separated by two or three times 

 their diameters, becoming asperulate laterally and apically, the inter- 

 spaces without minute sculpture; abdomen minutely, densely sculp- 

 tured and opaque, not punctate, the coxae all very widely separated, 

 the metasternum large, with distinct perforate punctures laterally, 

 becoming very fine medially, the prosternum evenly convex, not 

 sulcate, very broad, the wide apex broadly arcuate and received 

 closely within a very broad shallow sinus of the short mesosternum. 

 Length 0.68-0.88 mm.; width 0.45-0.58 mm. Central and southern 

 Texas to southern California. [P. minutus Lee. Proc. Acad. Phila., 

 1854, p. 117; scymnoides Csy., Bull. Cal. Acad., 1886, p. 252 (Di- 

 taphrus}} minutus Lee. 



The posterior margin of the prosternum is not truncate as stated 

 in my original definition of Ditaphrus, but broadly rounded as 

 described above. This species is abundant; one specimen from 

 Albuquerque, New Mexico, is a little larger than the others and 

 there is some slight variation in the size of the pronotal and elytral 

 punctures; there is however apparently but a single species, ex- 

 tending from Brownsville and Austin, Texas, to Fort Yuma, Cali- 

 fornia. 



The anterior smooth margin of the pronotum, defined by an 

 irregularly jagged line, is homologous with the much broader margin 



