440 COLEOPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Group VII.— Calyptilli. 



Rostnim not longer than the head, subqnadrangular, very 

 .slightly narrowed toward the tip and but little narrower than 

 the head. Eyes round, coarsely granulated, and almost entirely 

 concealed from above by a small tubercle. Scrobes lateral, arcu- 

 ate, deep. Thorax without ocular lobes or fimbriae. Scutellum 

 very indistinct. Mesosternal side pieces very unequal. Meta- 

 sternura short, side pieces moderate, suture obliterated. Abdo- 

 men normal, intercoxal process broad truncate in front. Tarsi 

 with coarse spinous hairs beneath, third joint not wider than the 

 second and feebly emarginate, last joint moderately long, claws 

 free. Anterior tibiiB feebly mucronate and digitate at tip with 

 four or five coarse spinules, articular cavities of hind tibite 

 cavernous. 



The gular cmargination is moderately large and without sub- 

 mental peduncle. The mentum is nearly semicircular in shape 

 and partially exposes the other oral organs, the inaxilla^ being 

 slightly visible at the sides and the ligula at tip. 



The combination of characters above given will be found very 

 difficult to place in any tribe of Lacordaire's system. The genus 

 cannot be called Phanerognath, as the mentum conceals the 

 greater portion of the oral organs, and it appears equally mis- 

 placed in the Adeloynath series. 



The occurrence of narrow tarsi in this portion of the series is 

 certainly a remarkable circumstance and serves to illustrate the 

 almost utter impossibility of dividing any portion of "the Rhyn- 

 chophorus sub-order without apparently doing violence to some 

 important character. As the present is the first occurrence of 

 this character, it might be here observed that two others always 

 accompany it (in our fauna) viz.: The approximation of the last 

 joint of the funicle to the club and the tarsi more or less spinous 

 beneath. Ophryastes, Rhigopsis, and Cimbocera, the only genera 

 of OtiorhynchidfE in our fauna with narrow tarsi, all have the 

 other two characters-. The tarsi may, however, be more or less 

 spinous in other genera, but the antennal character never occurs 

 without narrow tarsi. 



Calyptillus cryptops, from New Mexico, is the only species of 

 the group known to us. 



