6o CASEY 



medially, broadly flattened toward base; elytra as wide as the prothorax, 

 very feebly narrowed to near apical third, then much more rapidly 

 and with the sides serrulate to the emarginate apices, the punctures 

 everywhere well separated, the punctured series wholly unimpressed 

 and almost regular though rather inconspicuous; under surface nearly 

 as in angustus, the abdominal punctures fine, feebler and more unevenly 

 distributed. Length 24.0 mm.; width 7.5 mm. Southern Califor- 

 nia metallicus n. sp. 



If the same sexual difference in the antennae obtains in Prasinalia 

 as in Hippomelas, the types of both angustus and metallicus are 

 females; but I can scarcely imagine so great a sexual divergence 

 in the antennae, and especially in the hind tarsi, as equality of 

 either of them with cuneatus would imply, assuming the type of that 

 species to be a male. The synonymy of mexicanus with saginatus, 

 usually maintained, is I think wholly without basis of fact. There 

 is a specimen before me, from Guerrero, that I have assigned 

 to mexicanus, though it is more aeneous throughout above and 

 lacks the rounded punctureless spaces on the pronotum. There is 

 no material from the lower Rio Grande valley in my collection at 

 present, so it is only possible to utilize the characters given in the orig- 

 inal description for sphenicus Lee. It is without much doubt dif- 

 ferent from any of the more western forms above described. Brevi- 

 pes is almost subgenerically different from the remainder of Hip- 

 pomelas and is placed first as being at one of the extremes in tarsal 

 structure; the fifth ventral of its male is not transversely excavated 

 at tip, though having the edge laminate; it is very broadly truncate 

 at apex, with two small, widely separated and nearly circular emargi- 

 nations. 



Gyascutus Lee. 



In this genus the body is convex, though less elongate and more oval 

 than in Hippomelas, and the head is relatively much smaller; the sur- 

 face sculpture is far rougher as a rule and the finely pubescent areas 

 which, during life become thickly coated with a loose whitish fari- 

 naceiform material, are more extensive, particularly at the sides of 

 the under surface and at the base and along the depressions of the elytra; 

 the finer sculpture and longer pubescence of these areas serve to retain 

 the powdery coating more securely. The general structure is almost 

 as in Hippomelas, though the prothorax is always strongly rounding 

 at the sides and more narrowed anteriorly and the hind coxae are less 



