Case.]) — Observations on the iitaphylinidae. 401 



The sexutil characters iu this genus are unusually pro- 

 nounced, the male of rubricollis having the sixth ventral 

 broader and evenl}', rectilinearly truncate throughout its 

 width at apex, the female having this segment rather 

 narrower and more trapezoidal and broadly, feebly and 

 angularly lobed at tip, the lobe not porrect but bent down- 

 ward, with an attendant transversely lunate impression of the 

 surface before it. In the female of ceplialicus, which is the 

 only sex at hand, the lobe of the sixth ventral is similarly 

 very strongly bent downward, but it is here truncate and 

 there is no impression of the segmental surface. In the 

 female of parumpunctaias the lobe is nearlv as in cephalicus, 

 truncate at tip and bent down vertically, but it has a poste- 

 rior median impression, which causes it to appear broadly 

 bilobed in a line of sight from below perpendicular to the 

 axial line of the body. Cephalicus is very closely allied to 

 parumpunctat as but differs in its shorter, broader and more 

 ovoidal prothorax; it is probably the species that has been 

 mistaken for the latter b}'^ certain European observers. 



Lieptacinodes n. gen. 



This genus, founded upon the European Leptacinus 

 hatychrus Gyll., and related species, differs from Leptacinus 

 in the rather more conical form or relatively thicker base of 

 the fourth palpal joint, less developed oblique ocular grooves, 

 wholly obsolete lateral grooves of the under surface of the 

 head, smaller and much more numerous punctures of the 

 dorsal pronotal series and in its generally rather smaller and 

 more fragile species, which seem to be more numerous and 

 diversified. The prevalence of fine wavy strigilation on the 

 head, pronotum and abdomen is also a distinguishing feat- 

 ure. The gular sutures are arcuate, gradually approaching 

 each other posteriorly and become extremely approximate 

 but scarcely coalescent behind the middle. The American 

 species may be thus defined : — 



Under surface of the head finely strigilate in wavy lines; prothorax dark in 

 color 8 



Under surface of the head smooth and polished, without strigilation; pro- 

 thorax pale 8 



2 — Body larger and less slender, convex, polished, black, the abdomen 



