184 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL. MUSEUM vol. 65 



Gundlach (1891) states that: "Chevrolat records receiving a speci- 

 men from me but the species is not represented in my collection." 

 The species is not represented in either the Poey collection in Phila- 

 delphia nor the Gundlach Museum in Habana, so I have been unable 

 to examine any specimens of this species, and it is included in the 

 key from the characters given in the original description. 



This species can be separated from all the described West Indian 

 species of this genus, with the exception of tenuis Fisher, by the 

 elytra having a distinct lateral carina, extending from the humeri 

 backward for a short distance. From tenuis it can be separated 

 by the color, which is recorded as aeneous, while in that Species it 

 is entirely piceous, with only a slight aeneous tinge when viewed in 

 certain lights. 



TAPHROCERUS TENUIS, new species 



Form elongate, subcylindrical, strongly attenuate posteriorly, 

 moderately convex above, shining, uniformly piceous above, with a 

 very feeble aeneous tinge in certain lights, and without pubescent 

 spots ; beneath of the same color as above. 



Head slightly narrower than pronotum at base, and when viewed 

 from above is transversely truncate in front, with a longitudinal 

 groove extending from the epistoma to the occiput, the groove form- 

 ing an elongated triangular space behind the epistoma, and becoming 

 obsolete on the occiput; front wide, with the sides more widely 

 separated above than in front, and feebly convex between the eyes; 

 surface glabrous, finely and obsoletely reticulate, with a few shallow, 

 irregularly j^laced punctures intermixed ; eyes oval, equally rounded 

 at both ends, strongly convex, and slightly projecting; epistoma 

 feebly elevated, and rather narrowly and deeply arcuately emar- 

 ginate in front. Pronotum moderately convex, two times as wide 

 as long, apex and base about equal in width, widest at about the 

 basal third; sides when viewed from above are obliquely dilated to 

 basal third, then abruptly narrowed and feebly arcuately emargin- 

 ated to the posterior angles, which are nearly rectangular; anterior 

 margin nearly truncate; base truncate to middle of elytron, then 

 turning obliquely backward to the scutellum, in front of which it 

 is arcuately emarginate; surface with a shallow, broad transverse 

 depression along anterior margin, connected on each side to a broad 

 depression at lateral margin, which extends obliquely backward to 

 the base, but not transversely along base in front of scutellum, caus- 

 ing the surface near posterior angles to be feebly gibbose, surface 

 with a few scattered ocellate punctures, from the center of which 

 arises a short inconspicuous cinereous hair; intervals finely and 

 densely reticulate. Scutellum triangular, rounded in front, with 

 the surface nearly smooth. Elytra moderately convex, slightly 



