50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.86 



PLATYDERE CAECA, new species 



A single mature mule specimen collected with specimens of Leio- 

 dere dmyura at Tajiguas, Calif., January 1, 1928, by Dr. O. F. Cook. 

 Type: U.S.N.M. no. 1309. 



Descnption. — Body rather stout, 16 mm long and 1 mm wide. 

 Xum.ber of segments, 44. Color almost -white, with the repugnatorial 

 glands showing through the sides of the body as a series of small 

 orange spots, which turned almost black after the specimen had been 

 stored in alcohol. 



Head smooth and shining; surface of the vertex with tiny, very 

 faint, impressed reticulations visible only by cross lighting under 

 moderate magnification; labrum with a series of 14 setae at base. 



Segment 1 as long as the next two and a half segments together; 

 the posterior corners strongly curved under and clasping the lat- 

 eroA^entral surface of segment 2, not produced backward ; entire pos- 

 terior margin straight ; as seen from above, the sides of the segment 

 are almost parallel, being slightly rounded from front to back, 

 the segment widest at the middle or a little way in front of it. 



Segments 2, 3, and 4 scarcely constricted, the posterior margin of 

 segment 4 being over seven-eighths the width of segment 1 at its 

 widest part. Segments 2 and 3 not longitudinally convex, flat, when 

 viewed from the side. 



Near the middle of the body the exposed portion of the anterior 

 subsegments is very smooth and shining and has a few long, slightly 

 wavy, impressed, longitudinal lines; the covered part of the sub- 

 segment has coarse reticulations showing through the transparent 

 posterior subsegment of the preceding segment; posterior subseg- 

 ments scarcely higher than the anterior subsegments. 



Preanal scale about three times as broad as long, the posterior 

 margin rounded. 



Genus CHOCTELLA Chamberlin 



Body large and stout, only about 10 times as long as broad; dorsal 

 surface smooth; lateral surface strongly striate from the feet to 

 the repugnatorial pores. Eyes composed of many ocelli arranged 

 in five or six rows. Antennae short and stout. Clypeus with six 

 setiferous punctures. First segment extending forward over the 

 head and partly concealing the antennae; anterior angles broadly 

 rounded and distinctly produced forward ; lateral margin with a 

 raised rim. Repugnatorial pores large, beginning on segment 6 as 

 in Nannolene^ but said to be "in front of and well removed from 

 the transverse suture," a statement that is open to question, as in all 

 the other members of the family that the writer has examined the 

 pore is in the posterior subsegment, definitely behind the constric- 



