HENTZ TO HARRIS. 



University of N. C, Nov. 18, 1829. 



You must excuse me for haviiio- forgotten your sketcli of 

 Ropaloceros fasciatus. At the time I received your letter I 

 did not know the insect, and I have a bad memory for de- 

 scriptions only ; though your Boletohius montanus, sketched in 

 the same letter, I recognized at first sight, when I received the 

 insect from you. My 776 is not only congeneric, but may 

 belong to the same species with your insect. I have only two 

 ^ and one 9 , or what I suppose to be such. I will send you 

 one (J , and if it be of the same species with yours, I shall be 

 glad to know it. 



I have not your Thanasimus ; but I shall be glad to receive 

 from you all the information you can give me on that family. 

 I am as much puzzled as ever to fix on some certain characters 

 to divide it. I have now a little insect, collected last summer, 

 which in all respects answers to the characters of Thanasimus^ 

 except in the palpi, which are not securiform, but all filiform. 

 It may belong to Pelecophorus Dejean, but I am not acquainted 

 with that genus. Its length is only .15, its breadth about .05. 

 Its color is piceous ; the mouth is ferruginous, the antennce are 

 pale, except the last three joints. The elytra have large and 

 deep punctures arranged in regular strias ; interstitial spaces 

 very narrow, and often interrupted. There is a lunule on the 

 disk near the base, a common band on the middle, which ad- 

 vances to a point on the suture towards the base, and a little 

 dot near the apex, of a pale yellow. The thighs are pale. The 

 insect being small, and a unique, I have not dissected it. The 

 palpi are thus : -=»o^ Last joint blackish. And though the 

 tarsi appear to be disposed as in Thanasimus, I can see only 

 four joints ; but I have not placed it under a microscope for 

 fear of injuring it. 



I found this fall in a Boletus^ two specimens of a ThymaluB, 



