52 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



abdomen alutaceous and micro -reticulate, the elytra still duller and 

 finely rugulose, the pronotum polished and devoid of minute sculpture; 

 head small, scarcely longer than wide, very much narrower than the 

 elytra, the punctures moderately large, coarser than elsewhere and well 

 separated; basal joint of the antennae a little longer than the nest 

 three combined, the third much longer than the second or fourth, which 

 are equal ; prothorax but slightly elongate, much narrower than the 

 head, the sides feebly arcuate, the apes much narrower than the base; 

 punctures fine and sparse, feeble and inconspicuous; elytra slightly 

 longer than wide, large, parallel, one-half wider and two-fifths longer 

 than the prothorax, finely, rather feebly, very closely and confusedly 

 punctate; abdomen nearly as wide as the elytra, rather tapering pos- 

 teriorly, finely, feebly and rather closely punctulate. Male not at 

 hand; female with the second ventral unmodified, the third with a 

 small rounded and feebly elevated flattened tubercle before the middle, 

 the apes simple; fifth and sixth segments each with two widely sepa- 

 rated larger setigerous punctures on the disk behind the middle, the 

 latter arcuato-truncate at tip. Length 8.3 mm.; width 1.45 mm. 

 Texas prospiciens Lee. 



According to Horn, the male has the third ventral lobed, 

 but as this lobe seems to vary noticeably in form among the 

 very few known examples, there may be several closely allied 

 species of Biocrypta. As might be anticipated from its 

 affinity in many directions with Hesperobium, the sixth ven- 

 tral in the male is angularly emarginate, differing in this way 

 from any known species of Gastrolobium. 



Ababactus Shp. 



The comparatively minute delicate species assigned to this 

 genus, inhabit the warmer parts of North America and form 

 the closest approach in our fauna to the European Crypto- 

 bium. At the same time they differ very much from Crypto- 

 bium in general habitus, and the two genera are not very 

 closely allied. The species described by LeConte under the 

 name Cryptobium lepidum is in every way congeneric with the 

 west coast Ababactus pallidiceps and appears to be a typical 

 Ababactus, although I have not seen the type species, but its 

 true affinities were overlooked by Dr. Horn in his revision of 

 Cryptobium. The two species represented in my cabinet 

 may be readily identified by the following characters : — 



