12 COLEOPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



represented by a few species of great rarity, beyond what is to be 

 desired in an elementary work like the present; but I trust it may 

 not be without profit to the student, for upon a correct appreciation 

 of the respective importance of the characters given depends the 

 rational arrangement of the entire family of Carabida? ; the tribes 

 in question are precisely those of the most anomalous character, 

 and concerning the affinities of which the most diverse opinions 

 have been expressed. The present genus, for instance, was asso- 

 ciated by Chaudoir with Stomis, with which it has no character in 

 common, except the elongate mandibles; Lacordaire has adopted 

 the group Stomides as established by Chaudoir; Schaum has placed 

 the present genus in the group Broscida?,* from which, however, it 

 departs both by the absence of the epimera of the metathorax, and 

 by the epimera of the mesothorax reaching the coxae. To me it 

 seems most natural to consider it as the passage from the preceding 

 to the following tribes. I found the insect under stones at an 

 elevation of 2,500 to 3,000 feet, near San Jose, California. 



Tribe VHL— SCARITIM. 



Readily distinguished from all other tribes of this sub-family by 

 the anterior tibia? being more or less produced at the apex, and 

 toothed, giving the form called palmate, and by the abdomen being 

 pedunculate anteriorly. 



The head is pointed in front, from the mandibles being longer 

 than usual; the latter are sometimes strongly toothed internally, 

 sometimes slender and unarmed (Ardistomis, Aspidoglossa). The 

 eyes are small; the edge of the front is dilated over the insertion 

 of the antenna?, the base of which is capable of being received in a 

 hollow extending below the eyes; two basal joints and the base of 

 the third are glabrous; the first joint is elongate in some (Scarites, 

 Pasimachus), short in others. The mentum affects two different 

 forms; when the first joint of the antennas is long, the base of the 

 mentum covers the base of the maxilla?, filling the fissure each side 

 of the gular suture; when the basal joint of the antenna? is short, 

 the base of the maxilla? is uncovered, as in most Carabida? ; the 

 mentum is frequently trilobed, with the lateral lobes hardly longer 

 than the medial one. The maxilla? sometimes (Pasimachus) have 



* But has corrected this error on a subsequent page; vide Ins. Deutschl., 

 I, 773. 



