Coleo2')terological Notices. 183 



sinuate at tip. The labrum is freely retractile in a great many 

 other genera of Tenebrionidse, 



The genus Coelus is a highly specialized form of the group Coni- 

 ontini, which embraces two distinct types, distinguished primarily 

 by antennal and tarsal structure, and represented by Ccelus and 

 Coniontis. The genus Ccelotaxis is the connecting bond between 

 the two sections, since it possesses the long slender antennae of 

 Coniontis, and, in a rudimentary degree, the tarsal structure of 

 Coelus. Eusattus is closely related to Coniontis. Coelomorpha, on 

 the other hand, while exhibiting a decided relationship with Ccelus, 

 is a still more highly specialized and extreme form, and perhaps 

 may be considered a transition toward a group or genus now ex- 

 tinct or not as yet discovered. This view is principally based upon 

 the broad epipleurse and the form of the basal portions of the pro- 

 thorax. 



The prolongation of the basal joint of the anterior tarsus, which 

 is most highly developed in Coelus and Coelomorpha, is very mode- 

 rate in Ccelotaxis and nearly obsolete in Coniontis, although in the 

 latter a distinct tendency to prolongation may be perceived, the 

 joint being very obliquely truncate at apex. In Eusattus the basal 

 joint is much longer and more slender, and nearly every vestige 

 of the prolongation is lost. If, therefore, the group be arranged 

 systematically in accordance with this character, the genera would 

 stand in the following sequence: Coelomorpha, Coelus, Ccelotaxis, 

 Coniontis, and Eusattus. 



As a general rule in this group the basal angles of the prothorax 

 are prominent and produced posteriorly, and, although in Coelus 

 and a few species of Coniontis this character is nearly obsolete and 

 the base of the prothorax almost straight and transverse, we can 

 even in these cases clearly perceive the tendency to posterior pro- 

 longation. In Coelomorpha, however, this character is completely 

 reversed, for the base of the prothorax becomes evenly and poste- 

 riorly arcuate throughout its width, the basal angles being broadly 

 rounded and gradually coarctate with the sides. 



C. maritima n. sp. — Rather broadly oval, convex, shining, piceous to 

 pale ferruginous ; under surface and legs slightly paler. Head scabrous, 

 herissate with coarse erect setae ; antennae very short, gradually and strongly 

 incrassate, slightly compressed, scarcely two-thirds as long as the head ; eyes 

 very coarsely granulate. Prothorax distinctly more than twice as wide as long, 

 broadly convex, margined along the base, which is broadly and evenly arcuate, 



