AMERICAN COLEOPTERA. 339 



equal the head and thorax, the joints flattened, as broad as long 

 and subserrate. 



Four specimens, Colorado and western Nevada, (Morrison). 



The Mycteridae seem to have been cast about from place to place 

 by the various students who have had occasion to write about them. 

 Schmidt and Lacordaire have placed them in the Oedemeridae with 

 which the latter author acknowledges they have many important 

 differences. Following them the German authors adopt the same 

 opinion, while Latreille associated Salpingus and Rhinosinus with 

 Mycterus as a separate family. The doubts expressed by Lacordaire 

 together with the evidence given by Dr. Leconte, (Class, p. 254), are 

 sufficient to show the impropriety of associating Mycterus with the 

 Oedemeridae. A study of the characters seems to narrow the affinities 

 of the Mycteridae to a close relationship with the Melandryidae and 

 Pythidae, and in that position we find them placed by Dr. Leconte as 

 a separate family. From the former family it differs simply in the 

 middle coxae being enclosed by the sterna without trochantin, the 

 lobed penultimate joint of the tarsi existing in various degrees in 

 several genera while the toothed claws are found in Nofhus. The 

 lobed tarsi and toothed claws are not found in the Pythidae although 

 the coxal character is. Therefore the affinity seems more strong in 

 the direction of the Melandryidae. Giving additional weight to this 

 is a character of small importance, the slight impression of the base 

 of thorax on each side of the middle which also exists in all Melan- 

 dryidae even Nothus and Steuotrachelus. To my mind Mycterus and 

 Lacconotus bear the same relationship to the Melandryidae that Rhino- 

 sinus and Salpingus do to the Pythidae. It seems to me to be still an 

 open question as to whether the Pythidae and Melandryidae should 

 remain separated. 



Here seems a proper place to notice the occurrence of a new 

 species of 



WOTHUS Oliv. 



N. luteus n. Bp. — Moderately elongate, yellowish testaceous, sparsely 

 pubescent. Head densely punctured. Thorax a little wider than long, sides 

 feebly arcuate, margin posteriorly feebly explanate and slightly reflexed, base 

 squarely truncate, disc moderately convex, densely and rather coarsely punc- 

 tured. Elytra a little wider than the thorax, parallel, as densely punctured 

 as the thorax but a little more coarsely. Body beneath moderately densely 

 punctured. Length .32 inch ; 8 mm. 



The specimen before me is a male, at least it has the trifid claws and the 

 elongated last ventral segment, but the posterior tibiae have no spine. 

 Its color, punctuation and size will distinguish it from varians. 

 Occurs in southeastern California. 



