MORGAN HEBARD 121 



This minute brown roach is the only species of the genus ^^^ in 

 which the pronotum is produced cephalad, extending beyond the 

 head. 



MELESTORA Stai 

 1858. Melestora Stal, Kongl. Svenska Freg. Eugenics Resa, Zool., i, p. 311. 



The present genus is distinctly closer to Compsodes Hebard than 

 to Lathidia Stal, as is shown by the large and fully developed eyes, 

 form of pronotum and character of tegminal venation. 



From Compsodes we would note that the males of Melestora^^^ are 

 best distinguished by the more slender form; wide interocular 

 space •/■*- pronotum lacking medio-longitudinal linear sulcation; 

 tegmina with discoidal sectors very weakly oblique beyond apex of 

 anal field, elsewhere longitudinal, ^^^ cross-veinlets very weak or 

 subobsolete proximad and obsolete distad; subgenital plate 

 strongly asymmetrical, and arolia though very small relatively well 

 developed, extending from half as far toward to nearly to the 

 apices of the tarsal claws. 

 Melestora micra new species (Plate VI, figure 5.) 



The present minute, uniformly colored species, with M. minutis- 

 sima Rehn, is readily distinguished from the three other previously 

 known South American species of the genus by the much smaller 

 size and slender form. 



The very close relationship to miniUissima is shown by the fact 

 that the two species agree in every respect, except in genitalia 

 features. 



Type. — cf ; Paraiso, Canal Zone, Panama. May 10, 1911. 

 (A. H. Jennings.) [United States National Museum.] 



Size minute; form elongate ovate, depressed surface polished, regularly but not 

 thickly clothed with silky pile.'** Head visible cephalad of pronotum; occiput 



"" Described; Trans. Am. Ent. See, 2, p. 208, (191 7). 



'*' The female sex is unknown for Melestora. In Latindia females are generally similar 

 to males, in Compsodes they lack organs of {fight and retain the immature form. 



"- Not, however, accompanied by ocular reduction or as wide as in Latindia. 



1" Stal's figure for the genotype, M. adspersipennis Stal, shows these sectors moder- 

 ately oblique, though termed longitudinal veins in his original description. This dis- 

 parity is probably due to the discoidal sectors being in that species as characterized 

 above, which condition is shown by the several other species of Melestora before us. 



"' On the pronotum and proximal portions of the tegmina, this pile has been rubbed 

 off in the two specimens at hand. The sockets from which the hairs spring are, however, 

 there clearly \isible under high magnification. 



MEM. AM. ENT. SOC, 4. 



