312 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



VOL. 101 



from the same species of host and nest collected in the foothills of 

 the Sandia Mountains, about 6 miles east of Albuquerque, in De- 

 cember 1947 ; other specimens were taken from Onychomys leu- 

 cogaster melarwphrys Merriam, collected just west of the Rio 

 Grande, near Bernalillo, on March 12, 1948. 



MERINGIS NIDI, new species 



Figure Q6, Ji-j 



Head : Much as outlined for the genus by Hubbard (1947) . Two 

 rows of bristles present on gena, upper row of three or four 

 medium-sized ones and a lower row of four heavy ones, two ex- 

 tending slightly beyond the genal teeth. 



Thorax : As for the genus. 



Legs : Coxa III with a row of spinelets on inner surface. Tarsal 

 segment 5 of each leg with four pairs of lateral plantar bristles 

 and a basal, submedian, ventral pair. 



Abdomen : Tergal chaetotaxy as usual for the genus. Three ante- 

 pygidial bristles on each side ; of these the dorsal is the shortest, 

 the middle one the longest, and the ventral is subequal to the middle 

 bristle and twice the length of the dorsal or shortest bristle. 



Modified segments, male: Sternite IX (fig. 66, h) with two, 

 rarely three, black spiniforms on the posterior border near the 

 apex; the dorsal spiniform is the shorter. Along the margin of 

 the sternite proximal to the spiniforms occur some setae; at the 

 apex formed by the juncture of the anterior and distal margins, 

 there is located a small clear spiniform. Finger (fig. 66, i) is 

 armed on the posterior border with numerous setae; apex some- 

 what flattened; anterior border of finger somewhat concave near 

 the apex. 



Modified segments, female: Sternite VII with a broadly undu- 

 lating posterior margin, showing considerable variation. Sper- 

 matheca (fig. 66, j) with body subcylindrical, somewhat con- 

 stricted near the middle ; tail well bent. 



Types. — Holotype, allotype, and paratypes, U.S.N.M. No. 59337. 



Type locality. — Five miles east of Albuquerque, N. Mex, Male 

 holotype, female allotype, 27 male paratypes, and 69 female para- 

 types from a nest of a kangaroo rat (Dipodomys spectabilis) col- 

 lected on March 6, 1948, and three male paratypes and eight fe- 

 male paratypes from the food storage associated with the same 

 nest. 



Remarks. — This new species is near M. dipodomys Kohls, 1938, 

 but the male can be separated by the heavier sternite IX and 

 the different arrangement of spiniforms in nidi. Also in M. nidi 

 the finger is much less regular in outline than it is in dipodomys. 



