STAPHYLINID/E. 89 



Subgenus Atheta Thorns. 



This section, as considered here and in my previous paper, com- 

 prises a good many subgroups definable principally by differences 

 in the type of male sexual characters at the abdominal apex; many 

 of these groups have been given distinctive generic or subgeneric 

 names by Rey in his patient and careful treatment of the fauna 

 of France. To segregate our species with the minute thoroughness 

 bestowed by Rey upon that comparatively restricted region, would 

 however require time and patience far beyond the resources of the 

 writer, for the fauna of France is in all probability not so extensive or 

 diversified in the Aleocharinae as that of the single state of Cali- 

 fornia, or that of New England, these two regions also possessing 

 but extremely few species in common. 



The following is peculiar in its very small eyes and it may there- 

 fore not belong strictly to the true typical Atheta, though having 

 completely the general facies of the subgenus: 



Atheta franklini n. sp. Rather stout, moderately convex, shining 

 black, the abdomen feebly pallescent at tip, the elytra evenly castaneous, 

 the legs pale brown; micro-reticulation fine, unusually large on the elytra, 

 the abdomen with very fine though not very close-set wavy transverse 

 strigilation; punctures rather sparse, asperate but not dense on the elytra, 

 sparse and strongly asperate on the abdomen; pubescence rather long 

 and coarse, sparse and slightly pale; head large, wider than long, almost 

 four-fifths as wide as the prothorax, the eyes convex, at evidently more 

 than their own length from the base, the tempora parallel and swollen 

 slightly beyond the line of the eyes, strongly arcuate, the carinae feeble, 

 not quite entire; antennae extending nearly to the middle of the elytra, 

 black, piceous basally, gradually distinctly incrassate, the second joint 

 barely longer than the third, both shorter than the first, fourth nearly 

 as long as wide, outer joints transverse, one-half wider than long, the 

 last conoidal, longer than the two preceding; prothorax well developed, 

 two-fifths wider than long, subparallel, widest rather before the middle, 

 the sides broadly, feebly arcuate, becoming straighter basally, the angles 

 slightly obtuse and rather blunt, the ante-scutellar impression obsolescent, 

 the median line not impressed; elytra rather transverse, with slightly 

 diverging sides, at base just visibly wider, the suture scarcely a fourth 

 longer, than the prothorax, the flanks extending posteriorly a little 

 further than the median parts; abdomen slightly narrower than the elytra, 

 parallel, gradually perceptibly tapering posteriorly, the fifth tergite 

 equal in length to the fourth; surface very faintly rufescent basally; 

 hind tarsi with the first four joints subequal, the first very slightly shorter 

 than the second; middle coxae evidently separated, the mesosternal process 

 gradually acuminate, extending but slightly beyond their middle, its 

 apex moderately separated from the acute apex of the rather long and 



