396 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



and the dorsal series ol the pronotum have 10-12 punctures. Length 

 4.0 mm. California (San Diego) nanns Lee. 



Some of the species vary greatlj' in size and are of unus- 

 ually wide distribution ; the measurements of length refer to 

 individuals with moderate protrusion of the abdomen ; in the 

 ease of more constant species, these measurements refer to an 

 average example. The short reference to fusciceps, given by 

 LeConte (Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, 1880, p. 172), will pre- 

 sumably have to be regarded as a description and the species 

 is therefore attributed to that author, although its true status 

 was wholly overlooked ; it is by no means a variety of em- 

 mesus but a very distinct species ; fucosus is allied to fvsciceps 

 but is also distinct and could not be confounded with it by any 

 careful observer; it is the smallest species of the genus. The 

 commonest and most widely diffused species are ohsidianus, 

 hamatus and pusillus; oregonus may be a recently evoluted 

 derivative of hamatus, to which it is evidently very closely 

 allied and more specimens are much to be desired, in order to 

 arrive at a more definite conclusion. Gilvipennis is an ab- 

 errant form, although satisfying all the generic characters of 

 Gyrohypnus. The four species temporalis, dimidiaius, gidaris 

 and nanus are unknown to me in nature, and the above de- 

 scriptions are derived from the published statements of Le- 

 Conte. I formerly regarded vernicatus as the true gularls, but, 

 as the cephalic and pronotal punctures of that form are by 

 far the finest observable in the genus, constituting its most 

 striking character, it would appear to be specifically different, 

 since LeConte states that the punctures of gidaris are coarse ; 

 there can be little doubt, however, that they belong to the 

 same group, which, because of the absence of the post-ocular 

 flattened line, so constant in all the other species, should be 

 held to have subgeneric rank. It is probable also that nanus 

 will constitute another subgenus, but I have no means of as- 

 serting this at present. 



Duvivier (Cat. 1883), gave the name Jloridae to temporalis 

 Lee, because antedated by temporalis Shp., of Ega, South 

 America; as howexer , temporalis Shp., has no discal pronotal 

 series, it belongs to a genus unquestionably different from 



