Casey — Observations on the Staphylinidae. 425 



two setlgeroiis punctures ou the medial transverse line, sep- 

 arated by one-half the entire width to somewhat less. There 

 is invariably a large setigerous discal puncture anteriorly at 

 about lateral fifth, and, adjoining the acute lateral edge almost 

 in transverse line with the latter, another equally large and 

 conspicuous. The antennae are rather distinctly longer than 

 the head, somewhat slender toward base and strongly though 

 oradually incrassate distally, with the sparse tactile setae 

 rather conspicuous. The eyes are moderately large and 

 feebly convex, the surrounding groove very fine or sub- 

 obsolete. The frontal grooves when present, as in the 

 European affinis, are widely separated, short and parallel, 

 but they are generally represented by one or two setigerous 

 punctures. The anterior tarsi are strongly dilated in the male 

 but much more narrowly so and more parallel in the female, 

 the latter sex having the narrowed abdominal apex evenly 

 rounded; in the male it is sometimes rounded though fre- 

 quently transversely sinuato-truncate. The middle coxae are 

 narrower than usual, so that they are not quite contiguous, 

 being separated by the thick cariniform dividing ridge of the 

 mesosternum. The neck is rather more than half as wide as 

 the head as a rule and is obliquely carinate beneath at each 

 side and impressed in the middle, the oblique ridges fitting 

 into corresponding recesses adjoining the membranous and 

 corneous pieces filling the anterior sinuation of the proster- 

 num ; the latter is carinate posteriorly and the first ventral is 

 as in Parothius. The elytral punctures are not of the usual 

 type but, as in Parotliius, are extremely minute and sparsely, 

 irregularly scattered, the ground sculpture being obsolete but 

 with the general surface feebly undulato-rugose in several 

 species ; the abdominal punctures are sparsely scattered and 

 are fine, though more strongly asperate than usual, and bear 

 rather long stiff reclining hairs. The elvtra are glabrous, 

 with a row of small setae near the sutural bead, another on 

 the summit of the flanks and, generally, a medial row of very 

 few in all the species known to me, except the European 

 longiceps, where they are sparsely setulose throughout as in 



Parothius. Our species may be differentiated by the folio w- 



n g characters : — 



