180 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAX. MUSEUM vul. 65 



obliquely narrowed anteriorly; anterior margin nearly straight; 

 base strongly bisinuate, with a distinct median lobe. Scutellum 

 large, triangular, and wider than long. Elytra broad and short, 

 abruptly attentuate behind; humeri prominent, and often ex- 

 tending into a longitudinal carina along the lateral margin, the 

 disk sometimes with distinct longitudinal carinae. Sternal cavity 

 formed by the mesosternum and metasternum, the lateral branches 

 of the former very short, transverse, and compressed upon the side 

 or invisible. Metasternum broadly emarginate in front. Pro- 

 sternum truncate in front, with the sides deeply grooved near the 

 margin for the reception of the antennae; prosternal process with a 

 large, deep, elongate fovea at middle. Middle coxae a little more 

 widely separated than anterior ones ; posterior pairs are but slightly 

 dilated internally, narrowest at middle, and broader externally. 

 Legs very contractile, and while in repose are lodged in depressions 

 beneath ; femora feebly swollen, the anterior and middle pairs arcu- 

 late at apex; tibiae slender and cylindrical, usually straight, but in 

 a few cases arcuate; tarsi very short; tarsal claws toothed at base. 

 Body usually broad and ovate, attentuate in front and acuminate 

 behind. 



The species of this genus are very numerous and their distribution 

 heretofore has been confined to North, Central, and South America. 

 The following new species extends the distribution to the West 

 Indies. The adults are short, ovate and of various metallic colors, 

 the dorsal parts usually ornated with pubescent designs, sometimes 

 glabrous and occasionally with tufts of erect hairs, and are found 

 during the warmer part of the day on flowers, or feeding on the 

 foliage. The larvae are miners in the leaves of various trees and 

 plants. 



BRACHYS THOMAE. new species 



Broadly cuneiform, distinctly longer than wide, broadly rounded 

 in front, more acuminate posteriorly, and narrower behind than in 

 front, shining, piceous, with feeble purplish and cupreous reflections, 

 and ornated with indistinct irregailar pubescent designs; beneath 

 uniformly piceous. 



Head feebly convex, longitudinally grooved from occiput to epis- 

 toma, the groove very board and deep on the front, but becoming 

 narrower and not as deeply impressed on the occiput, when viewed 

 from above the front is deeply emarginate, and each side forming a 

 semicircle with the eyes; surface densely, finely granulose, and 

 sparsely clothed on the vertex, along the eyes, and behind the epis- 

 toma with a few recumbent cinereous hairs; epistoma narrow be- 

 tween the antennal cavities (about one-half as wide as the cavities), 



