8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.89 



PLEUROPHORUS PARVULUS (Chevrolat) 



Psammodiua parvulus Chevkolat, 1864, Ann. Soc. Ent. France, ser. 4, vol. 4, p. 



415. 

 Psammohius parvulus Arrow, 1903, Trans. Ent. Soc. London, p. 514. 

 Diastictus parvulus Schmidt, 1922, Das Tierreich, pars 45, Aphodiinae, p. 488. 



Dark castaneous, head and all but extreme margins of pronotum 

 piceous. Head strongly convex, gena slightly more prominent than 

 eye and separated from clypeus by a feeble notch, clypeus with a 

 shallow emargination at middle, edge on each side of the emargina- 

 tion reflexed, surface coarsely asperate, the asperities occasionally 

 joining to form transverse ridges, vertex shining, with scattered 

 small punctures. Pronotum with a shallow median groove on 

 posterior half and with a similar transverse groove along anterior 

 margin near each anterior angle. Lateral and basal marginal grooves 

 deep and well defined. Surface shining, sparsely set with a mixture 

 of very coarse and very fine punctures. Scutellum small, elongate, 

 oval, minutely sculptured. Elytra with striae strong and deep, strial 

 punctures not large, intervals convex, sparsely and minutely punctu- 

 late. Front femur with posterior face shining and with groove 

 present only along anterior margin. Posterior tarsus shorter than 

 tibia, first segment as long as the next two combined, upper spur 

 very little longer than first segment. Length : 2-2.5 mm. 



Type. — Location not known to writer. 



Type locality. — Cuba. 



Material examined. — In all, 41 specimens of this species have been 

 studied. These come from the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, St. Croix, 

 and Dominica. Most of the specimens seen had been collected at 

 dusk while flying. This bears out the observations recorded by Mr. 

 Arrow in his paper on the St. Vincent and Grenada species. It is 

 probably a humus feeder, as is its close relative on the mainland. 

 Pleurophorus hatesi Arrow. 



Records of this species from the mainland of both Central and 

 North America probably refer to P. hatesi Arrow and not to P. 

 parvulus Chevrolat. The writer has examined more than a hundred 

 North American specimens, all of which agree with the Mexican 

 rather than the West Indian species. 



After a study of the type species of the genera Pleurophorus and 

 Diastictus, it appears that both P. parvulus and P. hatesi must be 

 associated with Pleurophorus caesus (Creutzer) rather than with 

 Diastictus vulneratus (Sturm) if these genera are maintained as 

 distinct. Since the two are separated only by the difference in the 

 relative length of the posterior tibial spur and relative length of 

 posterior tarsus to tibia, characters of no fundamental importance, it 

 would be best to merge the two under one name. 



