BEETLE GENUS ONTHOPHAGUS — ^HOWDEN, CARTWRIGHT 105 



jar half filled with moist earth and supplied with fresh horse droppings, 

 no fresh wood-rat droppings being available. The beetles were left 

 undisturbed for 12 days before the jar was examined. Four loosely 

 formed cells, 12 mm. long and 6 mm. wide, were found. Two contained 

 eggs ; two contained first stage larvae. The two larvae were preserved 

 and the two cells containing eggs were placed in soil-filled 4-oz. metal 

 salve boxes. The eggs hatched in 2 days. The larvae were full 

 grown in 20 to 22 days. One third-stage larva was preserved; the 

 other reached the adult stage on August 5, approximately 30 days 

 after hatching. 



The development of 0. brotoni seems to conform to the usual pattern 

 for the North American species, but even though the larva seems able 

 to survive on horse dung, imknown factors apparently restrict 0. 

 hrowni to pack rat nests. 



In September 1960, Howden revisited the Portal locahty and 

 excavated additional nests. Only one five pau- of 0. browni was 

 found, but over forty brevifrons were taken; these species evidently 

 have different times of activity. 



Onthophagus veliitinus Horn 



Plate 7, Figures 64 and 65 



Onthophagus velutinus Horn, 1875, p. 140. — ^Austin, 1880, p. 25. — Henshaw, 1885, 

 p. 87.— SchaefiFer, 1914, p. 294.— Leng, 1920, p. 248.— Boucomont and Gillet, 

 1927, p. 208.— Boucomont, 1932, p. 306.— Howden, 1960, p. 460. 



Male majors. — Length 6.2 to 7.0 mm., width 3.5 to 3.8 mm. 

 Dorsal sui-face dark brownish black to black. Clypeus shghtly re- 

 flexed anteriorly and broadly shallowly emarginate, each side weakly 

 angulate; disc coarsely, almost rugosely punctate, the surface shining; 

 clypeal carina semi-obsolete, sometimes barely indicated by an im- 

 punctate area which is slightly raised medially; frons and vertex with 

 scattered coarse punctures which occasionally bear fine yellowish setae; 

 frontal carina incomplete, represented by two long, nearly straight, 

 usually slightly diverging horns, the horns separated basally by a dis- 

 tance equal to one-third the distance between the eyes; genae ex- 

 tending laterally slightly beyond the arcuate sides of the clypeus, an- 

 teriorly delimited from the clypeus by a vague sutm-e which extends 

 posteriorly around the eyes to the base of each horn. 



Pronotum moderately convex, margined anteriorly and laterally, the 

 dorsal surface moderately tuberculate, each tubercle overhanging a 

 very small puncture which bears a short yellowish seta; tubercles 

 separated by a distance 2 to 3 times greater than their diameter, 

 becoming smaller and more widely separated posteriorly; surface 

 between tubercles very fiinely alutaceous and dully shining; pronotum 



