204 EMIL BRENDEL, M. D. 



Some corrections in the Family PSELiAPHID/E. 



BY EMIL BRENDEL, M. D. 



Since the time the 2)athfinder in American entomology, John L. 

 LeConte, described his Batrisus, there has been much doubt as what 

 ought to be looked upon as a variety or a true species. We have 

 been under the impression that the described species occupied a terri- 

 tory of considerable extent. Batrisus nigricans, owing to a limited 

 amount of material, comprised Northern, Southern, Eastern and 

 Western forms of a similar appearance, though Dr. LeConte ex- 

 pressed in a letter to me his doubts of their identity. After his 

 demise his rather short descriptions were raoi'e closely examined, 

 resulting in the conviction that B. nigricans was not to be found far 

 to the North and West and our friend Casey described accordingly 

 the differences, which pertain chiefly to the form of the antennae and 

 the face. 



The true B. nigricans, collected in Georgia (vertice Irevi, leviter 

 oristato frontis apice bidentato retusoque. Antennre articulo tertio 

 crassiusculo secundo quai'toque majore), has a companion in a new 

 form from Long Island, N. Y., but differs in the first antennal joint 

 bearing a sharp thorn perpendicularly, causing the joint to appear 

 triangular ( S ), which I have named B. spinifer, differing again from 

 B. denticornis Casey, by the first joint having the perpendicular 

 tooth blunt and a shielding flat tooth (prolongation) above the in- 

 sertion of the second joint, which is even longer than the third, and 

 by the form of the clypeus, which is transverse, finely sculptured, 

 while in B. spinifer it is long, obtusely conical. 



B. cephalotes Casey (occurring from East to West along the lakes 

 and adjoining territory), differs from others in having no carina on 

 the occiput near the base. Vertex between the fovea and near the 

 occiput with a faint transverse impression. The frontal margin 

 faintly erect in the middle, profile of clypeus and vertex nearly rect- 

 angular. The declivous portion of the frontal margin emarginate, 

 the lobes on each side of the emargination setiferous, the small teeth 

 emerging from the depth of the emargination (in fresh specimens 

 yellow with black shining tips) appear like the teeth of a saw ; the 

 clypeal tuber more pi'ominent than in spinifer, is small, rounded, 



