AMERICAN COLEOPTERA. 309 



•leej)!/ striate, striae punctured, intervals convex, subruc^ose and sparsely punc- 

 tulate; color piceous black, shinin<:r, with apex and narrow space at middle of 

 side rufous. Body beneath, black, with tips of "terminal segment of abdomen 

 and narrow transverse band of prosternum rufous; surface sparsely punctuluti' 

 and pubescent. Legs, antennre and parts of mouth yellowish testaceous, fe- 

 mora darker. Length .20 inch ; 6.5 mm. 



This species resembles some of the darker varieties of eirr/ans but 

 may be distinguished from all "our species by its relatively shorter 

 thorax, of which the disc is more convex, with coarser and denser 

 punctures. The thorax is dark rufous in color, the dark discal space 

 large and ill defined jjnd a very narrow space along the middle of the 

 lateral margin is also dark. 



Two, specimensj from Oregon are before me. 



MEGAPENTHES, Cand. 



M. aterrimas, n. sp. — Black, sub-opaque, sparsely clothed with short black 

 liairs. lload coarsely and almost conflucntly punctured, anterior margin of 

 front truncate distinctly elevated and margined, Antennre strongly serrate 

 second and third joints small. Thorax convex, very densely jiunctured anil 

 opaipie, longer than broad, and narrower in front, sides in front slightly 

 rounded, behind the middle straight and slightly divergent, hind angles acute" 

 unicarinate and slightly divergent from tiie line of the sides. Elytra as broad 

 as thorax at base gradually narrower to ape.x, convex, striate, strirs punctured, 

 the inner more finely, intervals flat densely punctulato-rugose. Body beneath, 

 black, more shining than the upper surface and densely punctulate,prosteriwuii 

 very coarsely punctured. Legs black. Length .86 inch ; 22 mm. 



The median line of the thorax is rather deeply impressed at base 

 but'is very short as iu granulosus and turbulentus. This species re- 

 sembles completely the latter except in color. The frontal margin is 

 very slightly but none the less distinctly elevated and margined. 

 Cundeze appears not to liave been able to detect this elevation in lini- 

 halis, and has placed the IStter as an aberrant Lwlius ; tartareuK, 

 Lee, although smaller resembles the present species very greatly in its 

 specific characters and the two can hardly be distinguished except by 

 tho total absence of any elevation of the frontal margin so that the 

 labrum appears to be almost continuous with it. M. turbulent hh, which 

 like the ]trcscnt species is totally black, has the thorax more rugosely 

 punctured and more conxex as well as less narrowed in front; the ely- 

 tra are subparallel at the anterior two-thirds and the intervals much 

 more convex and less rugose. 



The species is widely distributed, specimens being before me from 

 the southern Coast Kange, and Owen's Valley, California and from 

 New Mexico. 



TKANS. AMEK. E.NT. SOC. (40) SKl'TEMBKn, 1871 



