DIAPERINI NORTH OF MEXICO — TRIPLEHORN 449 



Pentaphyllus californicus Horn 



Plate 3 (Fig. 18) 

 Pentaphyllus californicus Horn, 1870, p. 387. 



Description. — Elongate oval, moderately convex, pale reddish 

 bro\\Ti, shining. Head with clypeus well defined, slightly prolonged 

 beyond genae, anterior margin arcuate; genae romided, slightly 

 raised above antennal insertions; frons rather strongly convex in 

 female, almost flat in male, unarmed in both sexes; eyes very small, 

 widely separated both dorsally and ventrally; surface coarsely and 

 densely punctured. Pronotum 1.5 times as broad as long, \\'idest 

 near middle, lateral margins uniformly feebly rounded, narrowly but 

 distinctly expanded, very finely beaded; apical margin truncate, base 

 nearly straight \vith lateral portions broadly expanded, thin and over- 

 lapping bases of elytra, slightly reflected in front of scutellum; both 

 basal and apical angles obtuse and broadly rounded; entire surface 

 coarsely, shallowly, and moderately densely punctured. Elytra with 

 lateral margins parallel, abruptly attenuate and declivitous behind; 

 surface coarsely, shallowly, and uniformly denselj^ punctured. Scu- 

 tellum relatively large, broadly triangular, sparsely punctulate. Ven- 

 tral surface of pronotum deeply concave, smooth; prosternal process 

 narrow between coxae, strongly carinate medially, horizontal, acutely 

 pointed and prolonged apically; mesosternum flat, not forming V- 

 shaped ridges in front of mesocoxae; remainder of ventral surface very 

 coarsely and densely punctured, concolorous v/ith dorsum; legs some- 

 what lighter, tibiae all slender, hindtarsus with basal segment slightly 

 longer than two follo^\Tng combined and subequal to fourth; epipleura 

 gradually narrowed, almost attaining apices of elytra. Aedeagus of 

 male relatively broad and robust (pi. 3, fig. 18). Measurements: 

 length 2.1-2.4mm.; width 0.9-1. 2mm. 



Remarks. — Horn characterizes this species as "similar to P. 

 pallidus in form, color, and sculpture, differing in being more de- 

 pressed and with the centres of the first two abdominal segments 

 brown, almost black." 



It is indeed quite similar to P. pallidus and is relatively more 

 depressed than that species. Horn's second character, on the other 

 hand, is worthless taxonomically and may be ignored. The dark 

 centers of the abdominal sternites to which he alludes occur with 

 apparently equal frequency in both P. pallidus and the European 

 P. testaceus as well as in P. calijornicus. It appears to be only a dis- 

 coloration caused perhaps by food in the gut and may actually in- 

 volve almost the entu"e abdomen. 



