I08 CASEY 



very evident and rather coarse glistening hairs ; head unusually 

 small, finely but very strongly, rather closely punctate, the sinus 

 rather narrow, moderately deep, the anterior canthus full and 

 rounded, almost as prominent as the posterior; prothorax barely 

 one-half wider than long, the sides moderately converging and 

 broadly, feebly rounded from base to apex, slightly more converg- 

 ing toward the apex, which is rather deeply sinuate and three- 

 fifths as wide as the base, with the angles right and evidently 

 rounded ; surface finely but strongly, rather closely punctate, 

 unusually strongly and closely so toward the sides, with a feeble 

 impression along the sides behind the middle but not attaining 

 the base; scutellum small; elytra as in hzjlexula hut still more 

 gradually and arcuately narrowed behind to the rather acutely 

 ogival apex; surface inore uneven than usual, with distinct 

 tumescent lines, the punctures less fine or close-set than usual but 

 similarly disposed ; under surface nearly similar. Length 8.4 

 mm. ; width 3.6 mm. California. Cab. Levette. 



inconspicua n. sp. 



In the above series the margining of the prosternal lobe be- 

 comes so singularly inconstant as to lose a great deal of its 

 supposed value elsewhere, and the divisions of the table based 

 upon this character are somewhat arbitrary, the prosternal char- 

 acters only applying to the majority of the representatives of the 

 several species. In elongata, for example, the greater number 

 of examples, all females, have an entire beaded margin, but 

 one of the three males in the series has the lobe completely 

 unmargined except toward its base. So again, in hccidtila, 

 most of the specimens have the apical part of the lobe com- 

 pletely immarginate, while one, not differing otherwise to any 

 noticeable extent, has a strong and entire beaded margin. I 

 had separated a few forms upon this apparently important and 

 certainly most striking character, but was obliged afterward to 

 suppress them.' Some years ago Dr. F. E. Blaisdell gave me 



^ These cases are very puzzling and there are some seven or eight still unde- 

 scribed forms, each represented by from one to three examples, before me, in the 

 neighborhood of elongata, viatica and lucidtila, which possess in each case 

 some peculiarity of habitus, sculpture or structure of the prosternal lobe. Al- 

 though they would seem to represent distinct species or subspecies, the material 

 is far too limited to enable me to form any definite opinion at present, and as 

 three of them are from the same locality as the tvpes of elongata, the exact fixa- 

 tion of their taxonomic status is rendered thereby all the more uncertain. I 

 now think that the male example referred to elotigata, having an unmargined 

 prosternal lobe, mentioned above, will prove to be specifically distinct, as there 

 are some ob\'ious dih'erences in the oedeagus distinguishing it from the adopted 



