172 Journal New York Entomological Society. f^'°'- -^xvi. 



Silis filicornis new species. 



Elongate, delicate, slaty black with yellow prothorax. Head as broad as 

 apex of prothorax, depressed between the eyes; eyes prominent; antennae fili- 

 form, slender, extending almost to end of body. Prothorax about one fourth 

 broader than long, apex broadly rounded, sides in front almost straight and 

 slightly divergent backwards, the incisure but a small rectangular notch at 

 the posterior angles, with a depressed lamina from the lateral margin form- 

 ing its anterior boundary and a small thread-like process slightly curving 

 forwards, its posterior boundary, this process only partially enclosing the 

 incisure, the posterior angles blunt and not projecting, the disc with a slight 

 longitudinal depression at middle, a transverse sulcus near posterior margin 

 ending each side in a small fovese, and with prominent tubercles overhanging 

 the armature and the posterior margin lobed. Elytra about five times as long 

 as prothorax, slightly broader behind, narrowly margined, and with disc 

 rather coarsely, closely, and rugosely punctured, and finely, sparsely pilose. 

 Beneath uniformly dull and finely rugose, the seventh ventral normally divided. 

 Length 4.75 mm., breadth 1.75 mm. 



Type, a unique male in the collection of the U. S. National Mu- 

 seum, secured in the Panamint Valley, Inyo Co., Cal, April, 1891, by 

 Albert Koebele, marked Type, Cat. no. 21694, Panamint Valley 

 (Koebele). 



This species best belongs near S. liitca var. filigera Lee, but it is 

 narrower and more delicate in every way, with the posterior margin 

 of the prothorax lobed, not broadly rounded, the posterior angles 

 almost rectangular and not conspicuous, the incisure a mere notch at 

 the posterior angles, and the posterior process a very minute thread 

 which only partially encloses the incisure. It is a most interesting 

 product of the desert. 



Silis lutea Lee. 



Silis lutca Lee, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila., 2d Ed., Vol. V ( ), p. 



333; Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, Vol. V (1S74), pp. 61 and 62; Trans. 



Amer. Ent. Soc, Vol. IX (1881), p. 57. 

 Silis pallens Lee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila., Vol. V (1851), p. 339. 

 var. filigera Lee, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, Vol. V (1874), p. 62; Trans. 



Amer. Ent. Soc, Vol. IV (1S81), p. 57. 



These two are simply color phases of one species as is the case 

 with pallida and maritima and superficially they closely resemble 

 them. Besides the entirely different type of prothoracic armature, 

 lutea has in addition as a differentiating character from pallida, the 

 elytra simply blackened apically, not margined with black as well. 

 Filigera can best be separated from maritima aside from the arma- 



