CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 283 



NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF CALIFORNIAN COLEOPTERA. 



BY THOS. L. CASEY, LT. ENG'RS. 



Read November 16th, 1885. 



As a member of an expedition which explored several of 

 the northern counties of California during the past summer, 

 opportunity was given me to collect a considerable number 

 of specimens of Coleoptera. Among these several are 

 thought to be of sufficient importance for description in an 

 isolated manner, and the present occasion is also taken to 

 interpolate a few from other portions of the state. The 

 present paper is published with the hope that they may not 

 prove entirely uninteresting to specialists in the several 

 families. 



It will be observed that by far the greater number of 

 species here brought to notice, belong to the great tribe 

 Aleocharini of the Staphylinida?; these are all assignable, 

 however, to genera containing but a comparatively small 

 number of species, and in which no confusion can be made 

 by the description of special forms. The great genera Hom- 

 alota, Aleochara, etc., are left for the future consideration of 

 others who must be more experienced in the study of them 

 than the author, and with the hope that this much needed 

 revision will soon be undertaken; the group merits all the 

 attention which can be bestowed upon it, and contains some 

 of the most interesting and elegant forms of the entire 

 family. The genus here described under the name Colusa, 

 appears to have been entirely overlooked, although the 

 species are very striking in appearance and are compara- 

 tively abundant; they live in wet moss at the bottom of 

 ravines in the coast regions of the state. The genus ap- 

 pears to be quite local, and Dr. Sharp has recently described 

 several closely allied genera from various regions of Mexico 

 and Central America. 



8— Issued December 15, 1885. 



