356 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



but indistinctly punctured, sparsely toward the tip of the abdomen as 

 usual, the pubescence inconspicuous; color blackish, the prothorax, 

 abdomen, except a subapical darker region, legs and the antennae 

 toward base, pale; head smaller than in falliana, with very much more 

 broadly rounded basal angles, the antennae nearly similar but scarcely 

 so stout, fully attaining the middle of the elytra; neck barely half as 

 wide as the head; prothorax much narrower than the head and dis- 

 tinctly elongate, subprominently rounded at the sides at apical third, 

 thence feebly, subsinuately narrowed to the base, the surface wholly un- 

 impressed ; elytra more than four-fifths wider but less than a third longer 

 than the prothorax; abdomen much narrower than the elytra, the three 

 basal impressions very narrow and only moderately deep, polished and 

 smooth as usual; hind tarsi slender, almost three-fourths as long as the 

 tibiae, the basal joint somewhat longer than the next two combined. 

 Length 2.1 mm.; width 0.35 mm. California (Mokelumae Hill, Cala- 

 veras Co.) , — F. E. Blaisdell tennissima n. sp. 



Carolinae is almost exactly similar in size and general form 

 to the Calif ornian/a??m?ia, but differs in the deeper and more 

 uniform blackish coloration and in havino- the basal angles of 

 the head very much more broadly rounded. Tenuissima is 

 decidedly more slender, with the basal angles of the head also 

 more broadly rounded than m falliana, but rather less so and 

 with a narrower neck than in carolinae. 



Subfamily STAPHYLININAE. 

 Tribe Xantholinixi. 



The chief peculiarities of this Staphylinid tribe reside in 

 the formation of the antennae and front, the relatively 

 approximate insertion of the former and in the singular modi- 

 fication of the elytral suture characterizing most of the genera. 

 The antennae are strongly geniculate at the tip of the more 

 or less elongate basal joint, the latter, as well as the jtwo or 

 three following joints, being subglabrous and sparsely setulose, 

 while those which follow to the tip are usually compactly 

 joined, transverse to a greater or less degree, minutely and 

 densely pubescent and finely, closely sculptured, in addition, to 

 the sparse erect tactile setae; they are never very widely 

 separated at the extreme frontal apex and the apical margin 

 between them is more or less closely and deeply bisinuate, 

 the intermediate narrow lobe or epistoma being generally 



