AMERICAN COMPONENTS OF THE TENTYRIlxNyE 353 



tares rather coarse, deep and very close-set, not differing much 

 laterally, though if anytliing rather smaller, in exception to the 

 rule, and crowded though not very coalescent ; scutellum rather 

 small, transverse, rounded, flat ; elytra two-fiftlis longer than 

 wide, between three and four times as long as the prothorax but 

 only just visibly wider, subparallel, the sides feebly arcuate, the 

 apex gradually obtusely ogival, the punctures very fine, rather 

 sparse, but little less fine laterally, arranged throughout without 

 order, the usual series not even traceable ; abdomen alutaceous, 

 minutely, sparsely punctate, the metasternum coarsely, the pro- 

 pleurae strigose. Length 7.0 mm. ; width 3.2 mm. Lower Cali- 

 fornia pinguis Lee. 



The description is drawn from the female, in which sex the 

 apex of the dorsum is feebly sinuate at the middle, with the sur- 

 face at the middle of the sinus tumid and abruptly though 

 minutely and angularly incised ; there is also another smaller, 

 medially and minutely sinuate coriaceous segment posterior to 



this. 



Melanastus n. gen. 



This genus is composed of small species somewhat resembling 

 Blapstinus, generally black and more oblong than oval, inhab- 

 iting the usually arid regions from northern California to 

 Nebraska and southward to northern Mexico. The head is 

 moderate in size as in the preceding genera, rounded in front, 

 never biemarginate : that is, never having the lateral lobes differ- 

 entiated or at all prominent. The antennas are shorter and 

 stouter than in the preceding genera, though cylindrical to the 

 eighth joint, and the eyes are less developed than in any other 

 genus of the tribe, not prominent, but, on the contrary, rather 

 flat in the majority of species, strongly transverse and at least 

 half divided by the more or less prominent canthus of the frontal 

 margin, the mentum large as usual, with a small apical sinus. 

 The mandibles are not more deflexed apically and are unusually 

 deeply and unequally bifid at tip, the left not toothed, the right 

 with a small porrect dorsal tooth clasping the labrum. The 

 prothorax is usually subparallel, but little narrowed at apex, 

 more or less arcuate at the sides and with transversely truncate 

 base, somewhat closely fitted to the elytra, the latter with the 

 punctures more or less imperfectly serial, the scutellum small 

 and the anterior tibiae rather short but straight, increasing in 



