364 BULLETIN 182, UNITED STATES NATIONAL IVIUSEUM 



LV. RONETUS, new genus 



Genotype. — R. ort'molus T^lackwelder (designated here). 



Diagnosis. — Slender and elongate, moderately constricted; anten- 

 nae i^osteriorly flexile, not strongly geniculate, basal segment not 

 much elongate, some apical segments transverse; eyes prominent; 

 head not grooved behind eyes; labrum short and broad, with four 

 large equal triangular teeth; gular sutures united throughout; third 

 segment of maxillary palpus enlarged, elongate, fourth minute: neck 

 less than one-fourth as wide as head; prothorax elongate but not 

 greatly prolonged in front; prosternum expanded under the coxae 

 and connate with the hypomera; hypomera not much lobed behind 

 the coxae ; anterior coxal cavities open above but closed below by the 

 sternal processes; anterior coxae large, exserted; middle coxal cavi- 

 ties confluent; posterior coxae contiguous, "conical"; first and second 

 alxlominal sternites absent; tarsi 5-segmented, slender, fourth seg- 

 ment not lobed beneath ; integuments all densely coarsely tuberculate 

 in appearance. 



ReTuarks. — This is one of our most distinct genera because of the 

 coarse sculpture. The tuberculi seem to bear one hair and to be 

 covered with a white precipitate, but I have not been able to wash 

 this off by any means. It would key out to or near Myrmecosani'u.^ 

 in my key to the Paederini (Blackwelder, 1939) but is distinguished 

 at once from that peculiar genus in lacking the ridges at the sides 

 of the head, pronotum, and elytra. In most other respects these two 

 genera are rather similar. 



I have seen only one example, the genoholotype. 



1. RONETUS ORTINOLUS, new species 



Description. — Castaneous or piceous, color obscured by dense cover- 

 ing of whitish secretion or precipitate. Head semicircular behind, 

 nearly one-half longer than wide, unusually convex ; eyes prominent, 

 at one-half more than their length from base; antennae filiform to 

 fifth joint, five penultimate segments moniliform; surface through- 

 out with indistinct but dense and coarse verrucose sculpture, each 

 prominence bearing an anteriorly-projecting seta and covered with 

 a flaky deposit. Pronotum one-half longer than wide, three-fourths 

 as wide as head, widest at middle, sides straight in front and be- 

 hind, basal angles narrowly rounded; with sculpture as on heiid. 

 Elytra about one-sixth longer than wide, one-tenth longer than pro- 

 notum; sculptured as head but without the obvious setae. Abdomen 

 sculptured as elytra. Sexes not distinguished. Length, 4 mm. 



2'ype locality. — ^Trinidad, La Ortinola Estate, Maracas Valley. 



Types. — Holotype, sex unknown, in the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, collected on September 18, 1935, by N. A. Weber. 



