180 AMERICAN COLEOPTERA. 



Female.— Front tibiae not dentate; elytra more fully or quite covering the abdo- 

 men ; lust two ventral segments ascending ; femora less stmit. 

 Length 1.4-1.9 mm. 



Huh. — Massachusetts — Cambridge, in salt marsh ; Marblehead 

 and Tyngsboro (Blanchard) ; Iowa — Iowa City (Wickham) ; 

 Florida — Tampa (Hubbard and Schwarz). 



This species is unique among those at present known by the 

 ventral formation in the female. The peculiar form of the elytra, 

 which, by the way, is also most marked in the female, is only 

 approached by alberta. 



M. aiiierioana Maim. — Similar to cavicollis in such matters of detail as are 

 Dot mentioned in the table or below. The form is more elongate, the elytra 

 widest at middle in both sexes, and longer relative to the thorax ; the latter more 

 transverse and more regularly rounded at the sides, with less deeply impressed 

 fovea; the nietasternum very distinctly longer than the post-coxa] length of the 

 first ventral. (1*1. V, figs. 70 and 72,. Length 1.3-1.8 mm. 



Huh. — Pennsylvania; District of Columbia; North Carolina ; Illi- 

 nois; Michigan; Canada (Toronto); Iowa; Dakota; Texas; Utah; 

 New Mexico ; Arizona ; Nevada ; California ; < )regon ; Vancouver Id. 



Under the above name I have combined a mass of material from 

 nearly every portion of our territory, which I have repeatedly 

 worked over in the hope of laying hold of sonic constant and 

 definable means of separating specifically. That the aggregate is 

 composite is quite probable, but I can see no excuse for establishing 

 species, or, for that matter, of perpetuating old names on so slender 

 a basis that their subsequent recognition by students is a practical 

 impossibility. The very limited material possessed by LeConte at 

 the time of writing — more than forty years ago — gave no indication 

 of the really unusual variability to which many species of this 

 family fire now known to be subject, and offered some excuse for 

 describing as distinct a considerable number of salient forms, which 

 are now seen to be so completely connected by intermediates that 

 their recognition by description is impracticable and their validity 

 questionable. The LeContean species, which, for the above reasons, 

 I have for the present suppressed, are as follows: 



Expansa. — This was described from San Diego and is the common 

 coast form from So. Cal. to Vancouver. It does not differ appreci- 

 ably from specimens from various parts of the East, though the 

 color is generally paler, and the size larger than in specimens from 

 the Atlantic district. 



Scissa. — Based upon a robust female of pale yellow color, taken 

 at Yuma. The punctuation of the thorax is a trifle closer than 

 usual. I believe it to be at most nothing more than a local race. 



