50 NEOTROPICAL PSELAPHIDAE 



second segment elongate, increasing in width to become clubbed at distal end ; 

 third segment wider than second, subtriangular; fourth and last segment largest 

 in length and width, symmetrically fusiform, distal end acute, bearing a very 

 short, blunt palpal cone. Lateral margins of head evenly rounded both anteriorly 

 and posteriorly from the eyes. Ventral surface of head subglabrous. Mentum 

 very wide, evenly concave. Cardo of maxilla produced into an elongate spinoid 

 process to obscure base of maxillary palpi. Ventral surface of head with a long 

 V formed by two converging carinae, which unite medianly far behind the eyes 

 and near the union of neck and gular-genal areas ; this V enclosing a triangular 

 space which is raised from the rest of the ventral face, and enclosing two dis- 

 tinct foveae, a gular fovea at the posterior acute end of the triangle between the 

 uniting carinae, and an apical fovea near the median posterior margin of the 

 mentum. 



Pronotum more or less heptagonal, broadest anterior to middle. Just pos- 

 terior to middle, each lateral margin armed with a short but prominent acute 

 tooth. Lateral margins sinuate anteriorly to this tooth to the antero-lateral 

 angles of the pronotum, forming two sides of the heptagon. Apical pronotal mar- 

 gin, between these angles, in a broad, forwardly directed curve to form the two 

 anterior angles of the heptagon. Posterior to the lateral tooth, each side abruptly 

 narrower and sinuate to the rounded postero-extemal pronotal angles, forming 

 two sides of the heptagon. Basal margin of pronotum straight, forming the 

 seventh side of the heptagon. If the rounded anterior margin of the pronotum is 

 considered as one side, then the pronotum dorsally may be spoken of as hex- 

 agonal. Disc of pronotum fiat, with a well-developed sinuate transverse sulcus 

 posterior to disc, this sulcus ending on each side at the base of the lateral tooth. 

 Laterally, the transverse sulcus is expanded anteriorly, but lateral foveae are 

 not apparent. No median fovea in transverse sulcus, but the anterior median 

 margin of sulcus is differentiated into a slightly darker subtriangular area. 

 From a purely lateral point of view, the base of the pronotum has an elongate, 

 fusiform, obliquely-directed, well-defined depression. 



Elytra with a transverse basal carina paralleling the basal margin. Sutural 

 stria entire, ending basally in the sutural fovea. Lateral to this basal fovea, 

 partially recessed beneath the transverse basal carina, are two more foveae, the 

 discal and humeral. These two latter foveae are mutually more close to each 

 other than are the discal and sutural foveae. No dorsal stria. Each elytron, 

 therefore, with three nude basal foveae. Flank of elytron with a subhumeral 

 fovea, from the edge of which arises a longitudinal carina ; mesiad to this carina 

 is a longitudinal sulcus which arises from the subhumeral fovea. 



Abdomen with five visible tergites, decreasing in width to the subacute 

 apex. Segments strongly margined. First tergite slightly longer than second, in 

 the ratio of 3 to 2i/^ ; second tergite slightly longer than third ; third and fourth 

 subequally long; fifth shorter than fourth and triangular. Six stemites visible. 

 First sternite forming an elongate triangle between posterior coxae, and visible 

 shortly posterior to coxae and on each side of the coxae ; second sternite longer 

 than third in the ratio of 2I/2 to I14 ; third almost twice as long as fourth ; fourth 



