THK CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 197 



series of females only with great difficulty to be distinguished, but 

 accompanied by males ])resenting remarkable differences in the armature 

 and clothing of the legs. The females of P. lesquei-elice, Ckll., ined., are 

 very like those of P. vJ.llorum, but are somewhat larger, have rather 

 shorter antennae, and fly earlier in the year — in April. But the males of 

 lesquerellce present a remarkable broad brush of black hairs on the last 

 joint of the middle tarsi, while the basal joint of the hind tarsus is 

 ordinary and unarmed. 



The ? of lesquerellce I have recognized in two specimens taken by 

 Miss Jessie Casad : one at Lyciuni on the College Farm, Mesilla Valley, 

 April 1 6 ; the other on cherry, at Mesilla, .A.pril 14. In size and general 

 appearance it is like the $ . 



A NEW GRAIN BEETLE. 



BY V. H. CHITTENDEN, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



The recent discovery that the grain-feeding tenebrionid, Palorns 

 melinus or depresstis of American collections and literature, was in reality 

 composed of two distinct species, as announced by the writer in the May 

 number o'i Entemological News (Vol. VII., p. 138), finds a parallel in the 

 recognition of Silvanus mercator, Fauvel, in local collections with S. 

 surinatnensis, Linn. 



The former was not described until 1889 (see Revue d'Entomologie, 

 Vol. VII., p. 132), and has hitherto been unrecognized in America, 

 although M. Fauvel surmised that the species was cosmopolitan, from its 

 relationship to surinatnensis, et al., and its occurrence in France, New 

 Caledonia, and Africa. 



From examination of betv/een two and three hundred specimens 

 brought together mostly by myself, in connection with the investigation of 

 insects affecting stored products, for the Division of Entomology of the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, I am able to verify this opinion regard- 

 ing its distribution. This material includes an example from Kaiffa, 

 Syria, identified by one of our first European authorities, Mr. Edm. 

 Reitter. At the Columbian Exposition I collected examples in exhibits 

 of cereal and other seeds from Venezuela, Liberia, and Italy ; from the 

 Atlanta Exposition were also obtained specimens from Venezuela ; and 

 quite recently the species was received at the Department of Agriculture, 

 in a lot of ground flaxseed, from Mr. H. G. Wolfgang, of Calla, Ohio. 



I There are in the National Museum specimens from Los Angeles, Cal., 



