H. C FALL. 



103 



that the characters used and statements made are to he construed 

 as applying only to the fauna in question. They may he, and in 

 general are, capable of a much wider application, hut it is not safe 

 to assume this. 



The following characterization of the family is as full as need be 



for practical uses. 



It will be observed that Monoedus has not been included in the 

 present revision. According to Dr. Sharp, it almost certainly 

 belongs to the family Adimeridse. My opportunities for investiga- 

 tion have not been sufficient to enable me to form any conclusions 

 upon this subject, but the opinion of so eminent an authority may 

 probably be safely accepted. 



Small or minute insects, rarely exceeding 2.5 mm. in length ; body 

 varying in form from broadly oval to linear, and from strongly con- 

 vex to depressed ; color usually rufotestaceous or brownish, but vary- 

 ing from pale yellowish testaceous to black, rarely with distinct 

 markings and never (in our fauna) at all metallic; glabrous or 

 virtually so almost throughout the Lathridiini, pubescent in the 

 other tribes, the pubescence never very dense and arranged serially 

 on the elytra except in the Merophysiini. 



Head horizontal, usually more or less transverse, rarely distinctly 

 elongate (Adistemia and some Cartodere), smooth or punctate, often 

 sulcate or carinulate. 



Mention large, usually transverse and strongly punctate ; about as 

 long as wide in Fuchsina, longer than wide and smooth in Dasycerus. 

 Mandibles small, not prominent, generally concealed by the labrum. 

 Maxillse with two lobes. 



Palpi short and difficult to observe; the maxillary with four, the 

 labial with two or three joints; last joint oval or subcorneal, longer 

 than the preceding (very elongate and acicular in Dasycerus), the 

 basal joints scarcely visible, pseudobasal joints robust. 



Labrum short, strongly transverse, relatively large in the Corti- 

 cariini ; usually narrower (in a transverse sense) than the epistoma, 

 rarely (Cartodere elegans, Adistemia and Revelieria) wider than the 

 epistoma and embracing it at sides ; its front margin usually in some 

 degree sinuate, but often arcuate or truncate. 



Epistoma short, on the same plane as the front, and separated 

 from it by a tine arcuate suture in the Merophysiini and Corti- 



TRAXS. AM. ENT. SOC. XXVI. NOVEMBER, 1899. 



