REVISION OF ELEODIINI— BLAISDELL. 451 



thickened, although slightly longer and larger than the posterior. 

 The internal spurs of the meso- and metatibia are always slightly 

 longer than the external. The tarsi are similar in the sexes and 

 simple. 



The abdomen is always on the same horizontal plane as the sterna; 

 its segments are on the same plane in mnricatum^ rontnsum^ con- 

 tract urn and planmn; the third segment slightly oblique in glabruin 

 and elongatinn^ and distinctly so in depression. 



The genital characters are quite characteristic and immediately 

 follow planipennlH of the subgenus Discogenia in the evolutionary 

 series; they are very ditferent from those observed in the remaining 

 genera of the tribe, and only phyllogenetically related to Blaps. 



The generic genital characters are as follows: 



Male.— A pic ale of the edeagophore triangular; dorsal surface more 

 or less strongly convex, and Avithout median groove ; sternite bilobed ; 

 lobes united by a membranous in-terval. 



Female. — Genital segment triangular, or without the apices trian- 

 gulo-trajjezoidal, somewhat depressed ; dorsal surface quite plane, not 

 setose. Apices of the valves produced, chitinous, more or less everted, 

 convex above and concave beneath. Valves contiguous beneath; in- 

 ferior pudendal membrane not visible. Genital fissure narrow and 

 subapical. 



Superior pudendal membrane reaching to al)out the middle of the 

 dorsal plates. Appendages short mammilliform, with a pencil of 

 rather long hairs at their tips. 



Although the genital characters present slight specific differentia- 

 tion, they can not at present be tabulated so as to be of any practical 

 use. 



The species should be arranged in the following morphological 

 sequence: depressuni^ elongatmn^ glahrum,^ contractinm., planiim^ con- 

 tusum^ and muricatum. This is also an evolutionary series indicating 

 genealogical relationship Avith Discogenia. 



Such an arrangement will present to the notice of the student that 

 there is a gradual increase of the foliaceous margin from depressum 

 to mnricatnm ; as a consequence of this the apical emargination of 

 the prothorax will increase from a simple broad shallow emargina- 

 tion of the apex, so obvious in Eleodes., to the deep notch with almost 

 parallel sides, about equaling in depth the length of the head, as seen 

 in niiiricatum . 



In the narrowly margined species the prothorax is much broader 

 than long {^depressnni) ^ and with an increase in the width of the 

 margin the pronotum proper becomes narrower, even longer than 

 wide. 



The epipleural line follows the same rule; in the very narrowly 

 margined species it is quite distinct, and indicated in the whole 



