500 REVISION OF THE ELATER1DA; 



14. C. t r a n s f ug us , niger, subtiliter cinereo-pubescens, thorace latitudine subloogiore antice 

 angustato, postice subangustato, lateribus rotundatis, valde convexo, subalutaceo, parce punctulato, 

 basi biitnpresso, elytris striis subprofundis subtilius punctatis, interstitiis subconvexis, piceis humeris 

 late testaceis, pedibus antenuisque flavis, his extrorsum fuscescentibus. Long. -18. 



One specimen, San Jose, California. This species is allied to the next, but the thorax 

 is much more rounded on the sides: the basal stria? are reduced to extremely short fis- 

 sures, and the space around them is broadly and tolerably deeply foveate: the humeral 

 spot is oblong, and its posterior limit badly defined, appearing inclined to form an obso- 

 lete vitta, extending nearly to the tip of the elytra; the suture is darker than the rest of 

 the elytra. 



15. C. curiatus, niger, nitidus, griseo-pubescens, thorace latitudine vix longiore, lateribus late 

 rotundatis, modice convexo, parce puuctulato, elytris rufo-flavis, sutura, fascia lata ad medium, mar- 

 gineque pone medium nigris, striis profundis, subtilius punctatis, interstitiis convexis parce punctula- 

 tis, antennis palpis pedibusque flavis. Long. - 18. 



Elater curiatus Say, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 6, 173. 

 Oardiophorus areolatusl'Er. Germ. Zeitschr. 2, 320. 



Middle and Southern States, sometimes quite abundant. The basal fissures are here 

 merely oblong punctures, but there appear to be two on each side, placed very near to- 

 gether. Erichson seems to have placed great confidence in Dejean's determination (vide 

 C. nigrofasciatus Dej. Cat. p. 101) in considering this species as Elater areolatus Say, to 

 which it has no resemblance. 



Div. 5. CEBRIONITES. 



The genera here contained are considered by most systematic entomologists as consti- 

 tuting a peculiar family: and indeed on comparing any species of Cebrio with Elater, it is 

 difficult to come to any other conclusion. The number of genera composing the supposed 

 family is very small, and they are, moreover, rare in collections, so that but little oppor- 

 tunity is afforded for studying the differences in structure. Having been so fortunate as 

 to discover in our country a species of the very interesting genus Plastocerus, recognised 

 as entering this family, and two other genera still more closely allied to Elater, I have 

 been convinced of the necessity either of restricting the family Cebrionidae to the genus 

 Cebrio alone, (with my genus Scaptolenus, as probably a division of it,) distinguished by 

 the fifth ventral segment of the abdomen being truncate; or to place the family Cebrionida' 

 as now received by entomologists with the Elateridae, making of it a division equal in value 

 to the genuine Elatcrs, and distinguished by having the mandibles long, and prominent; 

 from the other great group containing the Eucncmida\ and which appears to osculate with 

 the present division in Perothops, the genera here contained differ by the antenna? being 

 widely separated as in Elater. 



The characters then of the present division arc as follows: 



Caput porrectum, oath's liberis; mandibulse elongatse, porrectse, ssepe tenues; labrum prsecipue 

 connatum; clypeus antice non dilatatus ; antennae distantes, in fossulis vix distinct is insertse; pro- 

 sternum non lobatum, sutura laterali prn <'i/>uc indistinctum, mucrone postico in aliis distincto, in aim 



