146 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



strongly, the sides more feebly, arcuate; bisal angles very obtuse, 

 rounded but not wholly obliterated; punctures not so fine as usual in 

 Aleochara, moderately close-set, even, the disk feebly impressed trans- 

 versely near the base toward the middle; elytra short, less than twice 

 as wide as lonj^ but much shorter than the prothorax and equally wide, 

 the sides shorter than the sides of the prothorax, the suture two-thirds 

 as long as the median line; punctures moderately strong, somewhat 

 close-set and feebly asperate ; abdomen only slightly narrowed from the 

 base, where it is as wide as the elytra, to the apex; hind tarsi subequal 

 in length to the tibiae, the basal joint as long as the next two combined . 

 Length 2.8 mm.; width 0.87mm. California (San Francisco). 



planiventris n. sp. 



I found but a single specimen of tliis interesting species 

 somewhere in the vicinity of the city and appear to have made 

 no notes as to habits. The basal part of the second tergite 

 seems to bear traces of impression toward the axial line in 

 certain lights, but it does not resemble the usual abdominal 

 impressions. 



Xenochara Key. 



Although similar in many characters to Aleochara and having 

 much the same general habitus, the few species of this genus 

 may be known at once by the remarkable structure of the 

 mesosternum, which gradually becomes strongly elevated pos- 

 teriorly, the process of moderate width becoming compressed 

 toward tip ; the summit of the elevation is finely acute and 

 extends to the anterior margin of the mesosternum, forming 

 on the anterior and scarcely elevated parts, a fine carina sim- 

 ilar to that of Baryodma and allied genera. The summit of 

 the ridge slopes posteriorly toward apex, this sloping part 

 bearing coarse suberect setae. The metasternum is even less 

 developed between the coxae than in Aleochara, and, in the 

 European puherula, forms a transverse and feebly, evenly 

 arcuate line, which is just attained on the same level by the 

 mesosternal process, the latter being arcuato-truncate at 

 tip, with the lateral edges reflexed nearly as in Aleochara. 

 The head and antennae are nearly as in the third group of 

 Aleochara referred to above, but the abdomen, though simi- 

 larly impressed, differs very greatly in being finely, densely 

 and uniformly punctate throughout. The pubescence is sim- 



