TYRINI 301 



oval glabrous field on the basal half of ventral face, the posterior margin of this 

 field carinoid, and the whole is sharp contrast to the asperate femoral integu- 

 ment. Intermediate legs with the trochanters glabrous, compressed and carinoid; 

 femore inflated and asperate. Posterior legs wholly asperate. Tibiae simple. Tarsi 

 as for tribe with two large, slightly unequal, tarsal claws. 



Described on a single male specimen collected on Barro Colorado Island, 

 Gatun Lake, Panama Canal Zone, by Dr. Laura Hare on May 13, 1935, from 

 a nest of Coptotermes niger Snyder in a decaying log. 



Although there are no data on the ecology of coptocolus, I unhesitatingly 

 assign a role of synoekete to this pselaphid until definite observations between 

 termite host and beetle prove otherwise. This seems justifiable on assaying its 

 remarkable external anatomy. Coptocolus is geographically isolated from the 

 other species of the genus, as well as by its habitat with termites. 



The pubescence of coptocolus allies it with vestitus of Argentina rather 

 than gibbicollis of central Brazil. From vestitus it is very distinct on tibiae, 

 antennal club and numerous other points. It differs from both in the distal seg- 

 ment of the maxillary palpi: in vestitus and gibbicollis the apex of this palpo- 

 mere is narrowly but distinctly truncate ; in coptocolus the apical truncature is 

 so small as to be nearly absent, hardly larger than the base of the palpal cone. 

 I prefer to assign to Neotyrus a variably developed apical truncature of the 

 distal palpomere, rather than erect a new genus at this time. 



Neotyrus harem new species 



Holotype Male. 2.4 mm. long x 1.0 mm. wide. Reddish-brown with mod- 

 erately long, stiff, subappressed, and conspicuous setae of a bright golden color. 

 Integument bright and shining throughout with sparse, subasperate punctation 

 save for legs which are coarsely asperate-punctate. 



Head with tempora as in coptocolus. Eyes large, prominent, median, each 

 composed of about 120 small facets. Vertex rounded into convex occiput, and 

 glabrous and flattened between the eyes ; on each side of this elongate glabrous 

 area is a vague, glabrous depression on a line with the posterior margins of the 

 eyes. The bottom of this depression holds a minute vestigial vertexal fovea. The 

 median glabrous area extends anteriorly, deepening to form a median, fusiform, 

 inter-antennal sulcus which separates the poorly developed antennal tubercles, 

 and then curves ventrally over the inter-antennal line of the front. At this point 

 the sulcus has much higher and sharper walls which terminate at the clypeus. 

 Clypeus granulate-punctate. Ventral surface of head flat, glabrous, with a large 

 median basal fovea. Genae with a large, triangular, laminoid infra-ocular spine. 



Maxillary palpi four-segmented, of Tyropsis-N eotyrus construction; first 

 segment small ; second elongate-arcuate, strongly pedunculate for basal half and 

 expanding to form an obliquely truncate, pyriform apical half; third smaller but 

 similar in form to second, with the basal peduncle for basal fourth and pyriform 

 area extending for apical three-fourths, also obliquely truncate; fourth (distal) 

 elongate-fusiform as in coptocolus, with apical end dorso-ventrally flattened and 



